Taking Ecstasy And Cannabis Not Sinful

The Church of England, a senior Law Lord and a number of British newspapers have come out in favour of decriminalising cannabis and reclassifying ecstasy from class A to Class B, this week. While the Church of England compared smoking spliff to committing adultery ("wrong, but not a crime") Lord Bingham, the UK's top judge called for outright cannabis legalisation, pointing out "it is stupid to having a law which isn't doing what it is there for."

Their comments followed the publication of a report from an all party committee of MPs which recommends introducing new classes of dealing for "social supply" and distancing ecstasy from heroin and crack cocaine, by downgrading it to class B. Government politicians, led by home office minister David Blunkett, instantly refused to accept the recommendations, prompting mockery from Simon Jenkins, a former editor of the Times.

"Nobody thinks ecstasy is as dangerous as heroin, to pretend otherwise makes classification absurd," he wrote in the Standard.

"It leaves kids on the streets to assess the relative harm of drugs on their own. Most, but not all, know how dangerous drugs can be. Either way, Mr Blunkett's messages are classifications are no help. They are stupid."

The Standard itself broadly concurred, urging the government to embrace the report's findings.

"What they (the committee) primarily require from the Government is a change in attitude- from regarding drug-taking as a sin to a misdemeanour (in the case of cannabis) or at worst, an addiction which needs treatment rather than criminal sanctions," said the Standard.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/0,2759,178206,00.html (Guardian special report on drugs in Britain)
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• ecstasy
• marijuana