Pubdate: Wed, 09 Mar 2016
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2016 Guardian News and Media Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175

HIGH TIME TO CHALLENGE THE FAILINGS OF PROHIBITION

It is impossible to know how many people have been deterred from 
using cannabis out of deference to the law. Decades of prohibition 
have not prevented the drug from establishing itself as a part of the 
repertoire of psychoactive substances that British people use for 
leisure and, for a few, non-recreational medication. Despite the 
theoretical threat of prosecution, cannabis use has become 
sufficiently uncontroversial for stories about David Cameron dabbling 
in his youth to have surfaced without measurable impact on his 
standing as prime minister.

That is not to say the drug is harmless.

It appears to put young users at a heightened risk of developing 
serious mental illness, although only a small minority will be afflicted.

Heavy, long-term use is associated with a number of unhappy social 
and physical conditions, although cause and effect are always hard to 
disentangle. And, of course, smoking is a dangerous habit with or 
without cannabis thrown in. The challenge for policymakers is to 
draft laws that deal with some citizens' proven appetite for drugs 
while maximising safety for all, in accordance with the best 
available evidence.

British governments have routinely failed that test. So the 
publication this week of a report by an expert panel, outlining a 
potential model of cannabis decriminalisation, is welcome as a step 
towards rational debate. The report, commissioned by the Liberal 
Democrats ahead of their spring conference this weekend, envisages a 
regulated system of legal sale and small-scale production, with a 
pricing mechanism that steers users towards milder forms of the drug.

Such a document is always vulnerable to criticism from all sides.

For libertarians, it looks like another futile effort by the state to 
manage pent-up market forces.

For prohibitionists it is another slip down the slope towards 
unbridled, licentious mass intoxication. The whole exercise is 
academic in any case, since the current government has no interest in 
such a scheme.

Its recent effort at legislation in this area, the psychoactive 
substances bill, created an unenforceable blanket ban on pretty much 
any chemical compound that might be ingested for kicks.

This demonstrated lazy, wilful ignorance of the practical realities 
of drug use and how best to police it. The Home Office is interested 
in neither scientific evidence nor lessons from overseas in this field.

There is no perfect template for reform.

Different countries have had vastly different experiences. Culture, 
fashion, demographics and economics all play a part  arguably a 
bigger part  than state enforcement. But the international trend is 
moving away from the crudest form of ban-and-punish regime.

Most cannabis users do little harm to themselves or others, except by 
funding organised crime, a function of illegality. Many who might 
otherwise dabble unscathed end up harmed by the consequences of 
prohibition: street products of unpredictable strength; career-ending 
convictions for minor offences; retail contact with gangsters.

Decriminalisation would not fix all the problems with cannabis, and - 
even if that path were pursued - it is not guaranteed that the model 
advocated this week would be the best variant.

But it is obvious that the existing regime is failing and that a 
rational, evidence-led review is overdue.

Anything that steers the debate a little in that direction must count 
as progress.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom