POLICE CHIEF BACKS CALL FOR CANNABIS LAW REFORM

Deputy Chief Constable Says His Comment Showed Support Only For Further
Debate

ONE of Scotland's most senior police officers yesterday supported
calls for the legalisation of cannabis, only to issue a retraction
within hours.

Speaking at a conference on crime and substance abuse Tom Wood, the
deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, endorsed an
unequivocal call by a police board convener for the drug to be made
legal.

Councillor Pat Chalmers, who heads the Grampian Police Board, told the
meeting in Edinburgh that society had only succeeded in alienating
young people by its policy of condoning alcohol and tobacco while
cannabis was criminalised.

He said that demonising cannabis also confused and devalued the
anti-drugs message, which was vital in the battle against the most
dangerous drugs, heroin and crack cocaine.

Mr Chalmers, a Liberal Democrat councillor on Aberdeenshire council,
said: "We needto turn the telescope round,legalise such drugs (as
cannabis) and, if possible, tax them. We could then begin to restore
respect and support for a renewed attack on the truly evil drugs being
peddled in society: I have in mind crack cocaine.

"But at present our policies are losing credibility with the young. We
are fighting the war on drugs on too many fronts. Let us redefine the
problem and go for it with reprioritised resources and
determination."

Mr Chalmers called for the money saved by legalising the drug cannabis
to be spent on creating detoxification and rehabilitation facilities
for addicts, and predicted that many of the next generation of
politicians would have used cannabis personally, as 50 per cent of
young people today have done, and might ultimately be prepared to
legalise it.

He said: "We have to wait for the change in Scottish attitudes to
gather pace and I think that is happening. I can see a tobacco
industry wishing to extend its interests, taking on cannabis and
cleaning it up."

It was at this moment that Mr Wood said: "Speaking personally, I agree
with what you are saying about cannabis. But it is an academic point,
as nobody in the public domain has the stomach to take on the fight."

Although drug legislation is a power reserved by the Westminster
parliament, he added: "Only the Liberal Democrats have ever taken this
up, when the individual who brought it up at annual conference was
lambasted by the party leadership. Do you honestly think that the
people in the Scottish parliament will have the stomach and courage to
take it up?"

Mr Wood made it plain that he was speaking in a personal capacity,
rather than as the leader of a law enforcement agency, and within
hours an anxious retraction was issued by Lothian and Borders Police.

The police officer later claimed that he had merely been supporting a
call for further debate on the whole drugs issue.

He said: "I don't want people thinking that I stood up there as a
deputy chief constable and advocated the legalisation of cannabis, as
it is not what I said or what I meant.

"As an individual, however, with 30 years experience of the business
of law enforcement, I do agree with Pat Chalmers that it is time to
look anew completely afresh at this problem, and now is perhaps the
golden opportunity."

Grampian Police also issued a statement distancing the force from its
convener's comments, and saying that force policy was that cannabis
should not be legalised.

Other speakers at the conference, A Cool Look at Drugs and Crime,
organised by the community safety charity SACRO, were cautiously
supportive of Mr Chalmers' views.

Sheriff Kieran McLernan, of Banff Sheriff Court, said: "I support Mr
Chalmers in his plea for something to be done in providing facilities.
But on cannabis the evidence doesn't stack up.

"I notice that no-one has come out with what is the medical evidence.
The somewhat glib suggestion that we should immediately move on to
decriminalisation without knowing what we are talking about doesn't
appeal to me."

Kevin Williamson, the drugs spokesman of the Scottish Socialist Party
and the author of a book calling for the legalisation of cannabis,
welcomed Mr Wood's remarks as "helping break down the wall of official
silence on the subject of the current unworkable drug laws".

He said: "It was only a matter of time before sections of the police
voiced publicly what they were saying privately. Namely, that
criminalising young people for cannabis use is a waste of police time,
courts time, and public money, which would be better used in getting
resources in place to help those with a real drug problem."

Dave Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, declined to
support legalisation, but added: "One issue we do need to look at is
the criminalising of large numbers of young people, and make sure that
the harm caused by the law is not more harmful than the use of the
drug itself.

"We do need to open up the debate and discussion, and have it in a
climate that is putting more light on the issue than heat. So far in
the election that has been the problem, and most politicians don't
feel able to do that, in their rhetoric about a drug-free Scotland and
zero tolerance rather than living in the real world."

Mr Liddell said evidence from Holland, where cannabis has been
decriminalised, was that there had been no explosion in cannabis use.
Last year 29,500 Scots were charged with possessing or supplying
drugs, the majority for cannabis.