Pubdate: Sun, 13 Feb 2000
Source: Scotland On Sunday (UK)
Copyright: 2000 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
Contact:  scotlandonsunday.com
Address: 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS, Scotland
Fax: (+44) 0131 226 7420
Website: http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/
Author: William Paul

CALL TO RETHINK POLICY ON CANNABIS

LORD McCluskey today calls for the Lord Advocate to reconsider prosecution 
policy against cannabis users as part of a radical rethink of government 
anti-drug strategies that have "conspicuously failed" for decades.

The High Court judge, who retired last month, also suggests that the 
Scottish parliament could take a lead by setting up its own task force to 
examine the problem and then make recommendations to Westminster, where 
drugs policy is a reserved matter.

In the second part of his controversial series challenging the way 
contemporary law operates, McCluskey says all attempts to control the drugs 
menace have failed over the years, yet anybody who dares to disagree with 
the government line is dismissed as a crank or a heretic in techniques 
reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition.

His comments will fuel the debate over the priorities which should be given 
to the competing strategies of 'harm reduction' and 'zero tolerance'.

McCluskey is not, he says, arguing that the war on drugs should be 
abandoned, but that the "war aims" be changed to be more realistic.

He wants a Royal Commission to re-examine the health implications of 
illegal drugs and the effectiveness of current enforcement measures.

The Lord Advocate, he says, has previously used his discretion to divert 
hopeless drunks away from the courts so that they can be sobered up rather 
than locked up. There is nothing to stop the same discretion being applied 
for some cannabis offences.
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