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A cause that unites across the spectrum

Chris Gray
Monday 25 June 2001 00:00 BST
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Support for liberalisation of the cannabis laws reaches across the political spectrum, from Tory libertarians to left-wing Labour MPs and Trotskyite Scottish socialists.

It has been crystallised by a Police Foundation report into Britain's drugs laws, which last year suggested the scrapping of jail sentences for possessing the drug. The inquiry, chaired by Viscountess Runciman of Doxford ­ a well-known champion of health causes linked with social exclusion ­ argued that criminal penalties for cannabis possession were more harmful than the drug itself.

Its main recommendations were rejected by Jack Straw when he was Home Secretary, but Lady Runciman, a former member of the Government's Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs, insisted its "time would come".

Clare Short has called for a fresh look at the problem while liberalisation, and in some cases full decriminalisation, has the support of several other left-wing Labour MPs including Tony Banks, Paul Flynn and Lynne Jones. They are joined by Tommy Sheridan, the far-left leader of the Scottish Socialist Party. Right-wing libertarian Conservatives have publicly made the same case.

Last week, five Tories ­ including the MEP and former health minister John Bowis ­ announced their support for liberalisation and called for their party to look long and hard at changing its policy on drugs.

The Liberal Democrats have traditionally been most in favour of decriminalisation. When Charles Kennedy took over he called for a Royal Commission on the issue, and has said that he is personally in favour of decriminalisation.

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