The Church of England's Board for Social Responsibility has called for the decriminalization of marijuana in its report to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee's study of whether the British government's drug policy is working

Christian Century, Oct 17, 2001

The Church of England's Board for Social Responsibility has called for the decriminalization of marijuana in its report to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee's study of whether the British government's drug policy is working. The board said it supported the recommendation of the recent Runciman inquiry into the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that "the possession of cannabis should not be an imprisonable offense." The board argued that the present policy leads to disrespect for the law among young people, and that it was only randomly enforced.

What's more, the board said there is "no link" between marijuana and increased risk of using "hard drugs" except in a tiny minority of cases. "Indeed, the criminalization of cannabis makes the association with hard drugs perversely more likely," the panel added.