Pubdate: Tue, 30 Oct 2001
Source: Michigan Daily (MI Edu)
Copyright: 2001 The Michigan Daily
Contact:  http://www.michigandaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/582
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA, UNITED STATES MUST LOOK TO BRITAIN

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- One week ago, British Home Secretary David Blunkett 
announced that marijuana possession will no longer be punishable by arrest 
within the United Kingdom. The plans for reform by the Home Office mark the 
first significant relaxation in British cannabis law in 30 years. Under the 
new proposed national policy, marijuana will be reclassified as a "Class C" 
or "soft" drug, giving it the same status as antidepressants and other 
prescription drugs.

The United States should look to Britain's example of a more practical drug 
policy.

Blunkett made the announcement before Members of Parliament on the home 
affairs select committee and emphasized that the drug will still remain 
illegal and that distribution of the substance would still potentially 
carry a five-year penal sentence.

Yet according to the official proposals, arrests will be very unlikely for 
those smokers who are caught with small amounts of marijuana for personal 
use. British officials say the reclassification is designed to remove what 
they call the "policing anomaly," visible in that seven out of 10 drug 
arrests in the United Kingdom are for soft drug possession. British police, 
as American police should, want to devote more time to cracking down on the 
abuse of harder, more dangerous drugs like heroin and cocaine.

As it would in the U.S., the elimination of the arrest of pot smokers in 
Britain will allow a dedication of criminal justice facilities to violent 
crime.

Last week's proposal was recommended by the Home Office nearly 18 months 
ago; its official acceptance is the latest in a series of drug policy 
reforms occurring throughout Europe. Earlier this year, the governments of 
Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal completely decriminalized the use and 
possession of marijuana. However, the prospect of similar drug policy 
reform in the Unites States looks bleak.

Marijuana solidly and illogically continues to bear Schedule I status -- 
along with heroin, cocaine, and LSD. The U.S. government continues to 
retain enormous ideological problems with all drugs, however innocuous they 
may be. With rapid cannabis reform coming from Europe and Canada -- where 
cannabis decriminalization is imminent, the United States is finding that 
it is fast becoming the odd one out in granting rights to responsible 
marijuana users.

It would seem that American policy makers are ironically far behind most 
Western nations in their attention to certain basic civil liberties.

The United States should indeed realize the folly of its over-exaggerated 
malign of recreational cannabis use and concentrate instead on crimes that 
actually pose a threat to society.
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