BRITISH MULL LEGALIZED CANNABIS

By Sue Leeman, Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) Marijuana should be legalized because it is a largely safe
drug that can alleviate some symptoms of multiple sclerosis, AIDS and
cancer, the sponsors of Britain's first public conference on the issue
declared Thursday.

Body Shop founder Anita Roddick, one of the sponsors, told an
oftenrancorous audience of 500 that Britain's current policy regulating
marijuana is "random, foolish and harmful" and "turns the sick into
criminals."

"It is time to change the law," she said.

The conference, also sponsored by Virgin boss Richard Branson, was brought
together by The Independent on Sunday newspaper, which has mounted a
campaign to enable Britons to buy and grow marijuana legally.

Some at the conference expressed concern that marijuana use was a "gateway"
to harder drugs, but they were in the minority.

Nigel Evans, a lawmaker from the main opposition Conservative Party, was
heckled when he said marijuana could cause madness. "Keeping it controlled
is the only way we can keep the number of young users down," he insisted.

British property owners face jail terms of up to 14 years for allowing
someone to smoke cannabis on their premises. Government figures show that
there are at least 1.5 million marijuana users, with more than 656,000
arrests made for cannabisrelated offenses between 1967 and 1995.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government, which came to power on May 1,
says it has no plans to decriminalize marijuana, despite a recent British
Medical Association report that marijuana has therapeutic value in treating
the symptoms of some diseases.

The medical journal Lancet concluded in 1995 that "the smoking of cannabis,
even longterm, is not harmful to health."

Labor lawmaker Austin Mitchell, who earlier this month led a delegation to
the Department of Health asking for marijuana to be made available on
prescription, said he had been told there was not enough research on the
subject.

"Pure balderdash," Mitchell thundered Thursday, waving a copy of the BMA
report from the floor. "Thousands and thousands of multiple sclerosis
sufferers are being forced into the back streets."

Balancing on a pair of crutches, MS sufferer Barry Clarke complained that
he has to be a criminal to obtain marijuana to relieve muscle spasms.

"Why can't I grow it in the privacy of my own home and smoke it?" Clarke
said. "That's all I ask."

Rosie Boycott, editor of The Independent on Sunday, urged other countries
to follow the Netherlands, which allows its citizens to use marijuana for
therapeutic and recreational purposes.

Other speakers went further, urging full legalization.

Sociology professor Lynn Zimmer, coauthor of a report on marijuana
research published by U.S. philanthropist George Soros' Lindesmith Center,
said the drug "has some potential for harm, but not too much."

Soros, a billionaire currency trader, was among the financial backers of a
California law, approved by voters in 1996, that allows marijuana to be
grown and used for medical purposes if recommended by a physician.

Decriminalizing marijuana, Zimmer said, would enable police officers to
focus on other crimes in effect "expanding current police forces by 5 or
10 percent."

"Last year in the United States, the police arrested 500,000 people for
possessing cannabis," she said. "By my calculation, these arrests cost
American taxpayers about $500 million."