KENNEDY: CANNABIS MUST NOT BE TABOO

CHARLES KENNEDY, the new Liberal Democrat leader, defended his call for a
radical overhaul of Britain's drug laws yesterday, and claimed that MPs were
lagging behind public opinion on the issue.

Mr Kennedy said that a Royal Commission should be created to look at the
decriminalisation of cannabis and other soft drugs. The 39-year-old MP, who
says he has never experimented with cannabis, is the first leader of a
mainstream political party to urge such a major re-think of drugs policy.

He said the issue of drugs, the effect on crime rates and use for medicinal
purposes should be subject to a thorough review by Parliament. Although
proposals for a Royal Commission have been official Liberal Democrat policy
for more than four years, the former leader, Paddy Ashdown, avoided the
issue in the belief that it could damage the party's election chances.

Mr Kennedy made clear yesterday he was "under no illusions" that his critics
would use his comments against him, but refused to accept that
decriminalisation was a political minefield. "I don't know a household in
the country that's not worried, extremely anxious about the whole issue of
drugs," he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

"It's what people are talking about out there. The fact that journalists and
politicians in and around Whitehall and Westminster are not addressing these
day-to-day concerns in a mature, considered and adult fashion is wrong."

As a "responsible politician", it was only right to ask why there were
differing sentences handed out by the courts, and why senior police officers
wanted change, he said. "I think we owe it to this country to have a better,
more informed discussion and I think the best way is through a Royal
Commission."

Downing Street insisted last night there was no need for an inquiry. "Tony
Blair is against decriminalisation of cannabis and sees no value in a Royal
Commission," a spokesman said. Ann Widdecombe, the Shadow Home Secretary,
said that Mr Kennedy's remarks were "entirely the wrong signal" to send out
to young people. "Charles Kennedy clearly has yet to learn how a responsible
party leader should behave," she said. "This is an unbelievable first
commitment which will alienate many of the people who put a cross by his
name in the recent leadership election and who voted Liberal Democrat two
years ago."

But support for Mr Kennedy came from an unexpected quarter when the Bishop
of Edinburgh admitted he had tried cannabis and called for legalisation to
be discussed. The Most Rev Richard Holloway, 65, said he had tried the drug
and found it "disappointing", but believed cigarettes and alcohol were far
more harmful.

Mike Goodman, director of the drugs charity Release, also welcomed Mr
Kennedy's comments. "For a leader of one of the three main political parties
to be making this statement now represents the drug debate coming of age,"
he said.

"Now is the time to talk, and consider not only the case to reform the drug
laws, but also how a reformed system could be put into practice."