Lib Dems: legalise medicinal cannabis and possession of drugs for personal use
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Version 0 of 1. Liberal Democrat peers have called on the government to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use and legalise medical cannabis. Brian Paddick, the party’s home affairs spokesman in the Lords and a former London mayoral candidate, has tabled a series of amendments to the government’s psychoactive substances bill, including decriminalisation of the possession of all drugs for personal use and the legalisation of medicinal use of cannabis when it is prescribed by a doctor. The psychoactive substances bill, which will be debated in the Lords on Tuesday, seeks to outlaw legal highs, which have been blamed for a number of deaths in recent years. But the draft legislation has been criticised for being badly drafted and containing too broad a definition of psychoactive substances. Lord Paddick, who was deputy assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan police before his retirement, also called for the government to delay the new laws until a full independent, evidence-based review of existing laws had been carried out. Paddick said that, instead of tackling the threat of these new drugs, the proposed legislation was likely to make things worse. “When I was a police officer, I realised that locking up drug users is simply not the answer,” he said. “We have to learn the lessons of why our current approach is failing before we make the same mistakes with new psychoactive substances as we have done with other illegal drugs.” Decriminalising personal possession would free up police resources, ensure addicts got treatment and social users received the education they needed to keep them safe, said Paddick. Arguing for the legalisation of cannabis use for medical purposes, he said: “There can be absolutely no justification for seriously ill people, prescribed medicine by a doctor, to be forced to become drug smugglers. “We aren’t talking about fake prescriptions for those wishing to get high. We are talking about properly prescribed doses of pain relief for those with serious conditions.” Despite losing 48 of their 56 MPs at the last election, leaving them as the fourth biggest party in the Commons with only eight MPs, the Lib Dems have 101 members in the Lords, making up 93% of their parliamentary party. The Conservative party has 228 members, Labour has 212 and there are 178 crossbenchers, meaning the Lib Dems have significant potential to unite with others to amend government legislation. Liberalising drugs laws has always been a key Lib Dem policy, with the party’s two leadership candidates, Tim Farron and Norman Lamb, both backing calls for the UK to legalise, regulate and tax the sale of cannabis. |