Ministers explain stance on cannabis
NICK THORPE

CHURCH of Scotland ministers who backed the decriminalisation
of cannabis explained their reasons yesterday for the controversial
break with Kirk tradition.

This week's agreement by the General Assembly that the drug
should be decriminalised, and that an independent group should look
at the case for legalising it, was backed mainly on the grounds of
inconsistencies in sentencing, according to a straw poll of ministers.

But the Rev Shirley Blair, a minister from St Thomas's Church,
Leith, also spoke of medical benefits experienced by at least three of
her parishioners taking the drug.

"I visited one of my congregation in his seventies and I smelt it
straight away when I went in the door if you've been a student,
you know the smell," said Miss Blair, 35, who refused to say if she
had taken it as a student.

"I asked who had been smoking and he said: 'It's for my hands and
legs.' I understand that people in a lot of pain will try anything to
alleviate the pain, and who am I to be the judge of that? If there are
medical benefits, I would support legalisation."

Another parishioner, who had since died, had been given cannabis in a
cake by her family in an attempt to relieve her rheumatoid arthritis,
said Miss Blair.

While she was happy to follow the findings of a Royal Commission
on the subject of decriminalisation by which users would be
referred to social services or another body, rather than police she
said: "There are benefits in legalising, in that it gets away from the
dealers, and can be used in medicinal ways."

Other ministers had a similarly uncensorious attitude to the drug,
arguing that it was less harmful than alcohol and tobacco. And there
were hints that even clergy had been known to indulge, though none
would admit to it.

"I don't know of any parishioners who smoke cannabis a few
ministers, maybe," said the Rev Terry Moran, 36, of Arthurlie
Parish Church, Barrhead.

The Rev Neil Campbell, 36, of Penninghame St John's Church,
Newton Stewart, agreed. "Ministers aged 45 and below wouldn't be
dramatically different to the rest of the population. I don't
remember anyone taking ever taking a moral stance on anything like
that during theological training.

"A very pertinent comment by a prisoner I once spoke to was that
you don't beat up your wife after smoking a joint. It doesn't deal
with any problem, but it also doesn't lead to another immediate
problem. To that extent, a lot of minist ers would say that alcohol
abuse was a lot worse."

Rev John Purves, 39, of St Andrew's Church, Drumchapel, said:
"The Church has been too judgmental, we've got to change that. We
are all human. The Church is in a difficult situation. If the Church
is all stuffed shirt and toes the party line, everybody slags it, whereas
if it really digs in and tries to make a difference, you're slagged
for not being traditional. The traditional view is just ban everything,
but what is that saying to the world outside?"