Voice Of The Sunday Mirror: Drugs rethink long overdue

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Aug 26, 2001

FOR many respectable, ordinary people smoking cannabis is a recreational habit they claim is less harmful to their health than tobacco.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has been impressed by the experimental scheme in Brixton where police have been issuing cautions instead of prosecutions.

Now he is planning to widen the idea to the rest of the country. We back that decision.

Too much police time and taxpayers' money is wasted on trivial cannabis offences.

But Mr Blunkett must ensure that any liberalisation should be matched by tougher punishment for any adult giving cannabis to teenagers.