BISHOP CALLS FOR CANNABIS LAW TO BE RELAXED

THE Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Rev John Oliver, has become the first
senior cleric in the Church of England to call for the
decriminalisation of cannabis.

The bishop, who denied having tried the drug himself, told The
Telegraph yesterday that so many young people now smoked it that the
law had become discredited and the police would be better off using
their resources to tackle hard drugs.

The 67-year-old bishop said that when he was a student in the early
1950s cannabis was "virtually unknown" but was "sure" that other
bishops must have experimented with it.

His comments follow the publication earlier this month of photographs
of the body of Rachel Whitear, a 21-year-old Herefordshire student
who died of heroin abuse.

Her parents, who had allowed the pictures to be shown to deter other
young people from drug taking, have acknowledged that she almost
certainly used soft drugs before becoming addicted to heroin.

Her stepfather, Mick Holcroft, and mother, Pauline, said yesterday
that they were not experts in the field. They added, however, that
they had lost their daughter to drug misuse and "if she hadn't been
taking drugs she would be here today".

Valerie Riches of the Family and Youth Concern group said that it was
a "shame" that the bishop had "jumped on this bandwagon".

She added: "One wants bishops to speak up for things like marriage
and the family, but they are not equipped to comment on complex
issues like drugs. If you legalise anything, it becomes acceptable
and the doors are thrown wide open."

Bishop Oliver was speaking after his diocese, the most rural in the
Church of England, became the first to vote for decriminalisation. A
motion supporting the decriminalisation of the use, if not the
supply, of cannabis was passed by a majority of four to one in the
diocesan synod, last weekend. The bishop was one of those who voted
for it.

"In the debate we heard from young people as young as 12 about the
pressure from peer groups who were already into drugs," he explained
yesterday.

"Teenagers who go clubbing said there were hundreds of thousands
using it. The very few who are caught and punished for the possession
and use of cannabis are unfairly penalised in comparison with the
overwhelming majority to whom the police turn a blind eye."

He added: "We were well aware that cannabis was not a harmless drug.
Nobody was saying that it was a good thing to use it. But we were
saying that the present system is unsustainable.

"I was very influenced by the change of heart by many senior police
officers who used to take a hard line on cannabis but now think it
diverts attention from other forms of drug taking."

He said that the argument that it was a "gateway" drug which
introduced people to harder drugs was not compelling.

"I'm sure that for some people it is a gateway to other drugs but for
some, if you decoupled cannabis from other drugs, you would actually
prevent them becoming the victims of dealers. The argument can be
quite plausibly be made either way."

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has already announced that the
Government is considering reclassifying cannabis from a class B to a
class C drug.

This would mean that anyone caught with a small amount for personal
use could no longer be arrested by the police. Under the plans it
would still be a crime to possess or use cannabis, but not an
arrestable offence.

Other Church dioceses are now expected to discuss the issue, leading
to a debate in the General Synod. Last year, a paper submitted to MPs
by the Church's Board for Social Responsibility, which considers
social issues, argued in favour of the decriminalisation of cannabis,
saying that although it might be wrong, it should not be punished as
a crime.