PRIEST CALLS FOR LEGALISED CANNABIS AND ECSTASY

A ROMAN Catholic priest argued yesterday that today's young people
have been cast as a generation of "modern-day lepers" simply because
they take ecstasy.

Father Bob Gardner called for the personal use of the drug to be
decriminalised and said that cannabis should no longer be illegal.

The priest, of St Benedict's in Easterhouse, Glasgow, conceded that
his views, which will be seen in a television documentary this
weekend, would provoke controversy. However he was confident of the
support of his superiors, and stressed that he did not advocate taking
ecstasy.

Channel 4 yesterday presented the results of its Citizens' Commission
on Drugs, of which Fr Gardner is a member, and launched an
accompanying series of programmes. The television company set up the
panel in the light of the Government's refusal to appoint a Royal
commission on drugs.

The commissioners called for more research on the medical effects of
ecstasy, the legalisation of cannabis and the setting up of a national
heroin prescription trial. They were split on the issue of ecstasy,
but voted five to three in favour of decriminalisation.

Their report coincided. with comments at a conference in Stirling by
Professor John Davies, an academic at Strathclyde University, who
called for the legal controls on heroin to be relaxed. If the drug was
available over the counter, he argued, its quality could be regulated
and fewer people would die.

Fr Gardner, who runs a youth centre for children in Easterhouse, said
at the Channel 4 launch in London yesterday that he had come to his
conclusions only after carefully examining the arguments over a number
of months and after speaking to users, care professionals and law
enforcement officials.

Young people simply ignore the law, he said. "We need to stop treating
this as a political issue and start treating it as a human issue. As a
priest, I can't be party to making modern-day lepers of people. This
is an area which has nothing to do with faith, but my brothers and
sisters."

Fr Gardner said that society had to realise that vast numbers of
people take ecstasy every weekend - estimates put the figure at
between 500,000 and a million. Decriminalising ecstasy use would allow
police and other agencies to concentrate their resources on tackling
the causes of the problem. He acknowledged that the report might upset
some people, particularly residents of the Cranhill area of Glasgow
where a 12-year-old boy recently died from a heroin overdose. "People
might think this report is crap, but I can stand up and say that it is
honest. For what it is worth, I can say that it is what I think."

Eight commissioners, including a lawyer, teacher, electricity worker
and magistrate, complied the report over four months. They visited
eight European cities, spoke to 30 organisations, 50 drug users and
five politicians from Britain and elsewhere in Europe.

Ken Temple, the panel's chairman and the chief registrar with John
Lewis, said that present drugs policy was unsatisfactory. In the
documentary he points out that Jack Straw, the Home Secretary,
promised to speak to anyone, anywhere, at any time" about the issue of
drugs. But neither Mr Straw nor any other government minister would
speak to the commissioners.

Prof Davies, professor of psychology at Strathclyde, said at a
conference on heroin yesterday that all drugs should be legalised.
Speaking to reporters later, he said; "It's really quite rational. If
heroin was available over the counter, the argument goes that you
would reduce harm because the heroin would he marketed over the
counter in a standardised form."

Such a move would allow for better control. "If you've got a lousy
lifestyle and you're living in a deprived inner city area, heroin use
is likely to be as good as life gets for you, so it is going to be
harder to control.

"On the other hand, if you come from a more privileged part of the
world and there's other goals you can achieve, you're less likely to
get in a jam with it if you do use it."

Also at the conference, Dr Charles Lind, medical director of the
Ayrshire and Arran Community Health Care Trust, said the debate
between legality and illegality was not "black and white". But he
stressed that allowing heroin to be sold would be fraught with
difficulties.

Yesterday Janet Betts, whose daughter Leah died on her 18th birthday
after taking an ecstasy tablet, denounced calls for the loosening of
legal controls on drugs. She claimed that there has already been
plenty of research done on ecstasy use, and said of the Channel 4
commissioners: "One would hope that a Royal commission would have a
bit more savvy."

* Altered Minds: The Channel 4 Citizen's Commission on Drugs
will be broadcast tomorrow at 7:45pm.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry