JUDGE IS BACKED OVER CANNABIS

THE CALL by a senior Scottish judge for a royal commission to look at the
case for decriminalising cannabis and examine the sentencing of drugs
offenders yesterday was given public support by a Labour MP.

Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West and a member of the Welsh assembly, welcomed
the call by Lord McCluskey. "The judge is saying in public what most
informed experts say in private - that cannabis laws needlessly criminalise
the majority of young people," he said.

"Even the drug czar, Keith Hellawell, has admitted that cannabis use is
`normal' among young people." Lord McCluskey's call was made at a lawyers'
conference, where he said that prison sentences were failing to deter drugs
offenders and that decriminalisation would free up police resources.

"If you import cannabis you get 25 years - is importation of cannabis four
times as bad as rape?," Lord McCluskey asked the Law Society of Scotland's
50th anniversary conference in Edinburgh.

"There is a vast amount of evidence that suggests cannabis is not a danger
to life. It's certainly not the same kind of crime that rape is.

"And do the penalties we impose deter? The statistics tell us absolutely
plainly that they do not. Deterrence in my view has no role at all."

The judge also questioned why police were "chasing" cannabis users and
suppliers, and alienating youngsters by turning them into offenders. "The
police can't devote resources to chasing heroin users who are doing real
harm," he said.

"A royal commission should be set up to look at the issue of
decriminalisation. We should hear the people themselves who are going to
raves and consuming this stuff."

Mr Flynn said: "The equivalent of four and a half jails in Britain are
filled with cannabis offenders. We are planning to build 20 more jails at
the cost of pounds 80 million each.

"Britain has the worst drugs record in Europe with five times as many
problems as most other European countries."