UK DRUG LAWS - MAKING A HASH OF IT

IT IS a campaign that has lasted nearly four decades and evolved from
protests of the "flower power" period in the Sixties to a battle at
the ballot box at the end of the last millennium.

While the non-medical use of cannabis was first banned in Britain in
1928 - after South African and Egyptian delegates at an international
conference on opium told other countries that cannabis was responsible
for driving people mad - the cause for its legality in Britain was not
taken up until the 1960s.

The suggestion that the drug led to people acting out of control had
been popularised during the Thirties and Forties by Harry Anslinger,
the head of the American Narcotics Bureau. To convince people that
terrible crimes were committed by cannabis users, Mr Anslinger
organised pamphlets, stories in the media and even a film called
Reefer Madness.

However, at the time, cannabis was hardly used in Britain and up to
the mid-Sixties was common only among the London jazz scene and some
West Indian communities. But with the advent of the hippie period the
use of cannabis grew rapidly among young university and college students.

The campaign reached a climax in 1967 when The Times newspaper
published an advertisement signed by many prominent businessmen,
musicians, writers and doctors calling for legalisation.

However, their efforts were to no avail and as part of the
introduction of the Misuse of Drugs Act in 1973 the government decided
that cannabis had no medical uses and banned it from
prescription.

The drug's use spread to other social groups. The reggae boom of the
mid-Seventies saw a revival of the legalisation campaign, although it
was not until the rise in drug use in the Nineties that it became a
serious political issue.

It attained national political prominence during the 1997 general
election when two candidates fought for a seat in parliament on a
"legalise cannabis" platform.

There was no formal party structure uniting the candidates but there
was a general public agreement on their policy.

On 28 September 1997, The Independent on Sunday newspaper, edited by
Rosie Boycott, ran a 12-month campaign in favour of legalising cannabis.

The campaign gathered more pace and in March 1999 the Legalise
Cannabis Alliance was registered as an official UK political party.

Although the few candidates who stood on behalf of the party managed
to win only 1 or 2 per cent of the vote in their respective
constituencies, public opinion polls throughout Britain revealed there
was significant support for the decriminalisation of cannabis.

It is the most widely used illegal drug in Britain. More than 8.5
million people have tried it at least once, and the British Crime
Survey for 1998 found that around half of men and a third of women
aged between 16 and 29 had used cannabis.

The debate has covered many aspects with the strongest arguments being
made for the legalising of cannabis for medicinal use. It is favoured
as a form of relief by sufferers of painful illnesses like multiple
sclerosis.

It was first introduced into Western medicine in the 1840s by a doctor
who had been working in India and was used for painkilling purposes
particularly in childbirth and for period pains. Rumour has it that
Queen Victoria was prescribed cannabis by her doctor.

More recently, campaigners have complained that prosecuting people for
possession, cultivation or dealing of cannabis was a waste of police
resources and a breach of human rights. In 1998, more than 90,000
people were caught in Britain committing cannabis offences.

Moving on to where the grass is greener. It is about time we had a
rational debate on cannabis. See Editorial for details