COMMENT

People are saying they want change

CANNABIS CAMPAIGN

Week One 28 September

THE campaign is launched with a strong plea for reform from the IoS editor,
Rosie Boycott. Her arguments receive support from former Drugs Squad
officer Ron Clarke and consultant psychiatrist Dr Philip Robson.

Prominent individuals join the campaign: from the medical profession,
Professor Colin Blakemore, chairman of the British Neuroscientific
Association, and from the entertainment world, Sir Paul McCartney.
Britain's best known businessman, Richard Branson, and the creator of the
Body Shop empire, Anita Roddick, send messages of support and endorsement,
as does Alan McGee of Creation Records.

Sky News puts the question of decriminalisation to Home Secretary, Jack
Straw, who says the Government will never legalise.

29 September. The Sun fulminates in its leader column under the heading
"Pot Luck": "The Independent on Sunday has gone to pot. Its editor has
launched a campaign, backed by misguided celebrities, to legalise cannabis.
Home Secretary Jack Straw took about 10 seconds to knock this nonsense on
the head. Straw knows that soft drugs can be the first step on the road to
heroin and cocaine."

The Daily Telegraph writes: "Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, rejected the
idea of decriminalising cannabis yesterday after a newspaper launched a
campaign to allow personal use of it."

The Telegraph gives a warning that the IoS drive backed by the Labour MP
Paul Flynn, a leading policeman and a consultant psychiatrist would
continue until the law was changed.

The Independent says: "The legalisation of cannabis was put firmly back on
the social agenda yesterday when the Independent on Sunday launched a
campaign to decriminalise the drug. New Labour does not want to scare off
the Home Counties/Daily Mail readers it picked up at the election, and Mr
Straw's language was unequivocal."

3 October. A poll by NOP Research Group, one of the country's leading
market researchers, reports that two out of five Britons aged between 15
and 34 are in favour of the legalisation of "soft" drugs such as cannabis.

"The findings come in the wake of a recent highprofile campaign in the
Independent on Sunday in support of decriminalisation of cannabis," said
Mandy Atkin, an NOP researcher. "They suggest that while there is clearly
no general support for the legalisation of [all] drugs, there seems to be a
strong feeling among the younger generation that the legalisation of 'soft'
drugs such as cannabis should be given greater consideration."

The Guardian announces that Britons consume an estimated 800 tonnes of
cannabis every year and that around 2.75 million people are regular users.

Week Two 5 October

Martin Amis, Harold Pinter, Lynne Franks, Sir Kit McMahon, Andreas Whittam
Smith, David Arculus, chief operating officer of United News and Media,
join the campaign. Many more academics and medical experts sign our
petition, including Professor Jennifer Hornby of Birkbeck College, London,
and George Papandreou, Greece's European Affairs Minister.

October 8. A significant boost to the campaign. Lord Chief Justice Lord
Bingham publicly calls for an inquiry into the drug laws. "It is a subject
that deserves, in my judgement, detached, objective, independent
consideration," he said. Ms Boycott appears on the BBC Radio Scotland
programme Now You're Talking. Of those listeners who vote on
decriminalisation, 83 per cent are in favour.

9 October. The Independent carries the story of Lord Bingham's intervention
on the front page, with a picture of drugs campaigner Caroline Coon smoking
a joint. The Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, on BBC1's Question Time, tells
viewers: "I am prepared to look at cannabis for medicinal purposes." But Mr
Dobson stresses that personally he is against legalisation. However, when
David Dimbleby calls for a studio vote on whether or not there should be a
Royal Commission into the drugs issue, the majority are in favour. The
voting figures are 57 per cent for, 35 per cent against, and 8 per cent
undecided.

11 October. The Daily Mirror carries the result of its own phonein poll on
whether or not cannabis should be decriminalised. It reveals that readers
backed the campaign by more than two to one. 1,304 voted yes, 661 said no.
Reports on the IoS campaign are carried by newspapers in New Zealand,
Greece, Sweden and Canada.

Week Three 12 October

James Fox, Douglas Adams, David Bailey, Sue Arnold, Frances de la Tour,
Sabrina Guinness, Margaret Drabble, Michael Holroyd, Jeremy Clarkson, Felix
Dennis, Mariella Frostrup, Matthew Freud, Simon Jenkins, former Labour
minister the Right Hon Reginald Freeson, and Professor Sir Raymond
Hoffenberg KBE sign the petition. MORI poll commissioned by the IoS reveals
that 80 per cent of British people want the law relaxed.

14 October. The BBC Radio 4 programme Call Ed Stourton features Mike
Goodman of Release. He puts the case for decriminalising cannabis and the
majority of the callers support the proposition. The same day, Keith
Hellawell is appointed Britain's first drugs tsar. The issue is debated on
news programmes on most TV channels.

16 October. The Daily Express devotes two pages to a feature on the medical
use of cannabis, headlined: "We break the law for the sake of our health",
in which three people talk about how cannabis helps their health problems.

17 October. The Daily Mail commissions a poll which they claim "buried" our
findings from the previous Sunday. Yet in the 1824 age group, 56 per cent
of people polled by the Daily Mail said that cannabis should be made legal
and 71 per cent said they would approve of a change in the law to make
cannabis available for medical purposes.

In its leader column the Mail accuses us of being "economical with the
truth" in presenting our poll's findings. Robert Worcester, the chairman of
MORI, counterattacks.

Week Four 19 October

Peter Gabriel, Dave Stewart, Janet Suzman, Max Stafford Clark, Dr Sam Hutt
(Hank Wangford), Michael Frayn, Rita Tushingham, Professor Harry Levine of
City University of New York, sign our petition. The result of our telephone
poll in last week's paper shows that 93 per cent of readers support our
stand. 5,830 called in, and of those, 5,408 were in favour of
decriminalising cannabis with 428 (7 per cent) against. To date, we have
received more than 1,000 letters in favour of the campaign, and 65 against.