Wither the intelligent debate on drugs legislation?

Aug 22, 2007 at 5:39 AM
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So, apparently the RSA report back in march was a "wake up call" according to our party leader, Sir Campbell, and since then Transform have also published a report on how we need to reform drug laws.

We've also seen a media backlash against the bad science and dodgy statistics linking Mental Illness to cannabis (quick summary - using cannabis could maybe increase risk of from 1% to 1.4% although you may have to an underlying condition, or self-medicate before diagnosis).

So where is the intelligent debate from our national political parties - Prime Minister Brown was going to have a massive consultation (predestined to pointlessly reclassify a couple of relatively harmless drugs back to class B in order to look tough on crime), it's all gone quiet after a bunch cabinet and shadow cabinet ministers confessed to using drugs but "regretted it" and preaching that just because they've tried it and got away with it and didn't do them any harm, they are terrible nasty illegal things and if you get caught you should rightly be imprisoned.

Liberal Democrat drug policy is hidden in the online equivilent to the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard', and ammounts to a couple of pages of double linespace A4 waffling about how decriminalisation would be nice, but not yet (just like nuclear disarmament would be nice, but not yet), and how we need some good reports to held decide policy.

....Well we've had reports, we have medical research on at least one drug (and I'm sure if MPs researchers and journalisists could be bothered) there is plenty of research on how much more harmful legal drugs like alcohol, etc are than illegal ones, so where is the intelligent discourse?

Where are our new innovative and fair policies and proposed legislation?

We had a recent party campaign on being tough on crime - but standing on the fence on social issues like drugs and the sex trade means being soft on crime - in a word the war on drugs (and failing to end it) means being soft on crime
!

ps http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2788634.ece

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[this is good]

Whilst of course I completely agree with what you've said here, I would characterize our policy, for what it's worth, as clearly more progressive than the others, though not nearly far enough. But I have been heartened by the number of what I would have considered to be right wing and not of the libertarian kindd necessarily hournalists who have supported the case for legalization since the debate was reopened. In particular for example I heard Charles Moore on Any Questions one week saying so.

Incidentally, the "consutlation" is for real. It's available on the Home Office website, and has a response deadline for sometime in October.