Pubdate: Sun, 13 Mar 2016
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Mark Leftly

'SMASH DRUG CRIME BY LEGALISING CANNABIS'

Lib Dems' Conference Decision Is a Totemic Policy That Would Also 
Raise Ukp 1bn Tax, Says MP Norman Lamb

The Liberal Democrats have become the first major party to support 
the legalisation of cannabis, a move, they argue, that will reduce 
drug- related crime and raise around UKP 1bn in tax revenue.

The policy was overwhelmingly approved by delegates at the Lib Dems' 
spring conference in York yesterday.

It follows a review of soft drugs set up by the former health 
minister Norman Lamb, one of the eight MPs who survived the party's 
general- election rout last year, and chaired by Steve Rolles, a 
senior policy analyst from the Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

Mr Lamb told The Independent on Sunday, that the vote would be 
"totemic" for the party.

The party's former leader Lord Ashdown built up the Lib Dems through 
the 1990s by taking on unusual causes that nevertheless appealed to a 
substantial subsection of the electorate. This included allowing Hong 
Kong nationals British passports to relocate to the UK when the 
former colony was handed back to the Chinese.

Mr Lamb said the Lib Dems are similarly "out on our own" on 
legalising and regulating cannabis.

He added: "The frontbenchers of the other parties, I think, are 
frightened of the issue. The hypocrisy of it is extraordinary.

"I guess if people in government are anything like the broader 
population, probably 50 per cent of the government has taken cannabis 
at some stage."

Mr Lamb, who has never taken illegal drugs, added: "The strategic 
challenge we [ the Lib Dems] have is that a great chunk of people in 
the country, including probably many readers of The Independent on 
Sunday and The Independent, regard themselves as liberal in their 
instincts, in their attitudes, in their philosophical position, but 
they don't necessarily associate themselves with the Lib Dems.

"Our task, if we are to build electoral support, is to convince 
people that we're the party that represents those liberal values. I 
think totemic policies like the cannabis motion - which has the great 
value of being evidence-based and rational, and also acutely liberal 
- - is the sort of thing we should be doing to develop an identity for 
ourselves that people can identify with."

The review concluded that a regulated cannabis market would help 
smash criminal cartels that run the British drugs trade. Mr Lamb 
denied this was a "whacky" plan, given relaxation of cannabis laws 
was passed in Canada last year and that several US states have 
legalised the drug.

Mr Lamb stood for the Lib Dem leadership last year, but was defeated 
by Tim Farron, a former party president. Unlike Mr Lamb, Mr Farron 
was unscarred by the Lib Dems' bruising experience in coalition, 
because he did not serve as a minister during those five years in government.

Mr Farron told The IoS: "This is about being really grown up about a 
massive issue and looking at the evidence. It contributes hugely to a 
criminal network that thrives off the illegality of the substance.

"We're trying to help those people who might have problematic use. 
We're trying to help society by undermining the criminal fraternity 
who make billions out of this. In doing that, you can look at how to 
better focus resources on catching the real criminals. And, let's be 
honest, UKP 1bn in tax could be used to invest in policing, 
education, and in health."

Mr Farron will make his leader's address today, when he is expected 
to launch a strong attack on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and his 
actions during the junior doctors crisis. These doctors have gone on 
strike over changes to pay and conditions, while Mr Lamb predicts 
that the NHS could need a government bail-out due to its 
deteriorating finances.

The Lib Dem leader will also say that Chancellor George Osborne is 
"taking an unnecessary political choice" to continue with public 
spending cuts. The Lib Dems believe public-sector workers needed 
substantial pay increases after years of seeing their wages squeezed.

Mr Farron is also angry that the Government has reversed the 
coalition's green energy subsidies.

He will argue: "It is time to be active and ambitious by investing in 
capital spending on housing, broadband and public transport. It's 
time to make the tax system work for small businesses. It's time to 
support the skills people want and need .... And it's time to condemn 
the Tory approach to green energy that is killing jobs, killing 
innovation, and putting our future in peril. It's time to back renewables."

The Lib Dems also adopted a policy to ban fracking yesterday. Energy 
and climate change spokeswoman Baroness Featherstone said: "Fracking 
is not the solution to the country's energy problems. We need to 
focus on long-term, sustainable goals like achieving a zero carbon 
Britain by 2050, not carving up the countryside for short-term gains."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom