CALL TO RETHINK POLICY ON CANNABIS

LORD McCluskey today calls for the Lord Advocate to reconsider prosecution
policy against cannabis users as part of a radical rethink of government
anti-drug strategies that have "conspicuously failed" for decades.

The High Court judge, who retired last month, also suggests that the
Scottish parliament could take a lead by setting up its own task force to
examine the problem and then make recommendations to Westminster, where
drugs policy is a reserved matter.

In the second part of his controversial series challenging the way
contemporary law operates, McCluskey says all attempts to control the drugs
menace have failed over the years, yet anybody who dares to disagree with
the government line is dismissed as a crank or a heretic in techniques
reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition.

His comments will fuel the debate over the priorities which should be given
to the competing strategies of 'harm reduction' and 'zero tolerance'.

McCluskey is not, he says, arguing that the war on drugs should be
abandoned, but that the "war aims" be changed to be more realistic.

He wants a Royal Commission to re-examine the health implications of
illegal drugs and the effectiveness of current enforcement measures.

The Lord Advocate, he says, has previously used his discretion to divert
hopeless drunks away from the courts so that they can be sobered up rather
than locked up. There is nothing to stop the same discretion being applied
for some cannabis offences.