CAMPAIGNERS described a decision by the president of the Philippines to pardon a drug smuggler from Yorkshire as "the best Christmas present ever" after he has been languishing in squalid conditions while in jail for nearly two decades.

It emerged yesterday that President Benigno Aquino III had granted Thalidomide victim William "Billy" Burton, 48, who is originally from Wetherby in West Yorkshire, the pardon from the life sentence on the grounds of his deteriorating health.

The revelation came 19 years to the day since Burton was arrested at Manila Airport trying to smuggle 12lbs of marijuana out of the country. He had faced the prospect of remaining in jail until 2032, when he will be 70.

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Campaigners Welcome Decision to Release William Burton, Caught Smuggling Cannabis in 1992, on Health Grounds

Campaigners have welcomed the news that a Briton jailed for drug offences in the Philippines nearly 20 years ago has been pardoned from his life sentence.

William Burton, known as Billy, was jailed for 30 years in 1992 after being caught trying to smuggle 12lb of cannabis out of the country.

He has received a pardon from the Philippines president, Benigno Aquino III, after campaigns in the UK to secure his release on the grounds of his deteriorating health. Burton, 48, from Rufforth, North Yorkshire, will be released on the condition that he returns home, never returns to the Philippines and pays a 20,000 peso (#294) fine.

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As drug raid targets go, they were hardly the usual suspects.

Chris and Anne Vincent, a respectable couple in their late fifties, answered the door of their village home to find police demanding access to their garden.

Neighbours had reported how streams of local teenagers had been knocking on the couple's door asking to buy marijuana.

And police dogs had picked up the waft of cannabis coming from the Vincents' flower bed in the Warwickshire village of Bidford-on-Avon.

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SNIFFER dogs will be used to catch revellers carrying drugs on Christmas nights out in Hull.

It comes after officers revealed 53 per cent of people brought into police custody for carrying out violent crimes tested positive for cocaine or opiates this year.

That figure has risen to 73 per cent this month after festivities got under way.

Now Humberside Police has launched Operation Trafford to try to catch people with drugs before they become violent.

For the next six months, the force will be carrying out random checks using specially trained dogs.

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THE BIGGEST police drugs operation South Yorkshire has ever seen - set up to tackle gang violence and murder - was hailed a success today after seven more dealers were locked up.

The operation, which began in August 2009 and has now concluded has seen 83 men, women and juveniles put behind bars for a total of around 150 years or given community sentences.

Police launched Operation Mach after a spate of murders, stabbings and shootings involving members of postcode gangs.

The aim was to deter city youngsters from getting caught up in gangs and drug dealing.

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ASPIRING forensic investigators at Coventry University swapped their classroom for a city shopping centre when they joined a team of canine counterparts in a live police training exercise.

Students from the university were given the opportunity to practice real-life scenarios when they teamed up with West Midlands Police to help train their detection dogs.

The students - all on the forensic investigations BSc course - spent Thursday morning at the West Midlands Police Dog Training Centre in Balsall Common, before taking part in a live training exercise in West Orchards Shopping Centre in Coventry.

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Here's The Toss-Up: Take an Illegal Drug Such As Ketamine, Cannabis or MDMA. We Know Their Effects and the Potential Health Risks - and You Risk Two to Seven Years in Prison, a Ruined Career, a Hopeless Future.

Or, as an alternative, take a "legal high" - sold on the internet, easily available. It's a gamble. There's no research on the drugs and they could be harmful - but get caught with the pills in your pocket and you'll walk free. Which sounds less risky?

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President Santos's call for a new approach to drugs must be supported wholeheartedly

President Santos's call for a new approach to the war on drugs, an approach that could even look at legalising cocaine and marijuana, deserves a positive response from the leaders of the consumer countries and the US and EU in particular ("Colombia's leader urges global rethink on drugs").

Those of us who have campaigned for serious debate on the issue have been frustrated by the number of senior politicians who have agreed with us but said they could not take a public stand for fear of committing political suicide due to a hostile reaction from the US administration or public opinion or, in the UK, the Daily Mail. The fact that the president of Colombia, the country that has paid the highest price and fought hardest in the war on drugs, should have been prepared to speak out so courageously should inspire the many in American and European political circles who share his view about the failure of the war on drugs at last to make their voices heard.

Sir Keith Morris

British ambassador to Colombia 1990-94

London SE19

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President Santos's call for a new approach to drugs must be supported wholeheartedly

Spineless politicians abound on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 2008 elections in the United States, more residents in Massachusetts voted in favour of a referendum on decriminalising cannabis than voted for candidate Barack Obama. With a record 50% of Americans now in favour of cannabis legalisation, cannabis is polling better than the president. Yet Obama has reneged on a campaign promise to respect states' rights with regards to medical cannabis legislation. At a time when local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, a US government crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries is in full force.

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President Santos's call for a new approach to drugs must be supported wholeheartedly

As you suggest, "money", not "health or morality", will be the prime mover in "opening up a lucrative new market" for American big business in "recreational" substances ("The drugs war is failing. We must think again", Leader). Mass production and mass distribution of drugs, sufficiently cheap, varied and globally accessible to overtake criminal cartels, would have the extra commercial advantage of perennial addiction, while any adverse medical or social effects can be shifted on to taxpayers, as happens over sugar, alcohol and tobacco.

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President Santos's call for a new approach to drugs must be supported wholeheartedly

Your last edition contained a startling juxtaposition. In the Review section, Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones admitted to spending around UKP 20m on drugs. In the main paper, Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia, explained the impossible task of controlling drug supply and the distorting effect illegal drugs have on the economy and law enforcement of his country.

As long as Ronnie, Keith and thousands of others indulge in such hedonistic behaviour, this problem will remain and thousands of the poor and underprivileged in South America will continue to die and be exploited. We in the west owe President Santos our support. Perhaps Ronnie and the Stones could consider a benefit concert. How about "Drugs Aid"?

Jeremy Swinson

Liverpool

[end]

Jimmy Carter and Sting Amongst Those Who Signed the Petition

David Cameron is being advised to legalise drug use in Britain by an elite group former U.S. presidents, Nobel Prize winners and six British MP's.

In a letter that have been sent to the Prime Minister, Cameron has been encouraged to reverse current UK law that treats drug use as criminal one rather than a medical issue.

The document that was directed at Cameron and the entire Parliament house, was signed by former US commander and chief Jimmy Carter, musician Sting and Yoko Ono amongst others.

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Change Policy and Look at Alternative Ways of Combating UK's Drugs Culture, Says Eliza Manningham-Buller

The former head of MI5 believes the "war on drugs" has proved fruitless and it is time to consider decriminalising the possession and use of small quantities of cannabis.

Eliza Manningham-Buller has backed calls for the government to set up a commission to examine how to tackle the UK's drug culture and consider the highly controversial move of relaxing the law.

She was speaking at a meeting held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform on Thursday where senior government representatives met experts from across the world to consider ways of combating the issue.

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Liberal Democrats Yesterday Called for Possession of Controlled Drugs - - Including Heroin and Cocaine - to Be Made Legal If They Are For Personal Use.

The party's annual conference in Birmingham voted for reforms to drugs laws which could also lead to Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes opening across Britain.

The decision means it is now official Liberal Democrat party policy, to which leader Nick Clegg is bound - although the Home Office said it had 'no intention' of changing the laws.

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies told delegates: 'We have had drug prohibition for 50 years and drug use has increased. The only way to stop the criminals is to undermine the supply chain by taking away their income.'

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A Judge Today Granted Anonymity to a Police Officer Who Used Official Records to Snoop on Dealers He Was Buying Drugs From.

The unprecedented order was made to protect a Scotland Yard officer who claimed he had been using cannabis for more than ten years to treat "nightmares and flashbacks."

He said he had been forced to turn to street dealers when his internet source of "medicinal marijuana" was shut down in 2008.

He accessed the files of two people who had been supplying him with the Class B drug apparently in order to "ensure his own personal safety."

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An independent panel should consider legalising cannabis as part of a wide-ranging review of drug laws, the Liberal Democrats said.

The experts should also consider whether possession of any currently illegal drug should remain a criminal offence.

The motion was passed by the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham as a senior lawyer told activists that current drug policy is not working.

Alistair Webster QC, a crown court recorder and chairman of the Lib Dem lawyers association, told the conference: "I have practised in the courts, both as an advocate and judge, for over 30 years and it's plain to anybody who has spent time in that way that the drug policy which we have followed since 1967 is not working."

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SHEFFIELD'S top judge has issued a stark warning to anyone caught growing cannabis in South Yorkshire - immediate prison awaits.

The judge said the number of cases of production of the Class B drug was on the rise, and he was dealing with three or four at court every single day.

Many defendants were unaware they would be jailed immediately, he said - - even if it was their first court appearance, they had no previous convictions, and they were growing the drug for their own use.

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CANCER sufferers will be prescribed a spray containing cannabis as a new form of pain relief treatment.

Experts say the medication -- derived from marijuana plants -- works by numbing the muscles.

It will be given to terminally-ill hospital patients as part of a ground-breaking trial.

But Sativex does not get users high. Research nurse Sam Jole said: "Patients using the spray do not experience the euphoria associated with illegal recreational use of cannabis.

"It has passed strict tests for quality, safety and efficacy and doctors already prescribe it to other patients."

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I HAVE just read the comments by Alun Buffry regarding the couple who had cannabis in their home to help them with their medical conditions (LT Opinion, August 30).

A crime is a crime and all should be punished. His suggestion that it's OK to take illegal drugs if you are not getting enough pain relief from prescribed drugs is totally absurd.

Arthritis is not an excuse to take illegal drugs.

It's a known fact that cannabis leads to paranoia. Who is going to pay for medicines to treat that problem?

All criminal activity should attract a sentence, thus encouraging a community of law-abiding citizens.

Christine

Blackburn

[end]

Regarding the sentencing of Jacqueline Yorke and Kenneth Laird ('Nelson couple who grew cannabis for arthritis spared jail', LT, Aug 26), this has been a tragedy of injustice!

After being arrested for growing cannabis in their own home to ease the terrible pains of arthritis, Laird was given a six-month prison sentence and Yorke four months, each suspended for 18 months.

Each must pay UKP200 court costs. Laird must carry out 120 hours community service and Yorke 100 hours.

I am sure that the Misuse of Drugs Act was not really meant to stop people growing a few cannabis plants at home to ease the symptoms of some terrible ailments and pains, including arthritis.

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