BAN ON CANNABIS IS 'STUPID', SAYS SENIOR LAW LORD

One of Britain's most senior law lords surprised drug campaigners yesterday
by saying it would be "stupid" to oppose the legalisation of marijuana.

Lord Bingham of Cornhill, a former Lord Chief Justice, said bluntly in an
interview for Spectator magazine that prohibiting the drug was not working.

Asked by the magazine's editor, Boris Johnson, whether cannabis should be
legalised, the law lord replied: "Absolutely. It is stupid having a law
which isn't doing what it is there for ... Everybody thinks our system is
becoming soft and wimpish. In point of fact, it is one of the most punitive
systems in the world."

Lord Bingham went much further than David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, who
has proposed downgrading cannabis from a class B to a class C drug. He is
also out of step with the Home Affairs Select Committee, which rejected
legalisation of cannabis in its review of Britain's drugs laws, saying it
would send out the wrong message to young people.

The Conservatives, who are carrying out their own review of drugs policy,
and the Liberal Democrats declined to comment on Lord Bingham's remarks.
But his views were welcomed by groups working with drugs users, who said it
was the only way to keep drug dealing out of the hands of criminals.

Kevin Flemen, the acting director of the drug charity Release, said that he
"wholeheartedly supported" Lord Bingham's comments. "Reclassifying
cannabis, as David Blunkett suggests, is a fudge with precious few benefits
apart from saving police time.

"Young people are confused about whether cannabis is decriminalised or not,
as they have been told they won't be prosecuted for it. And people will
still have to go to the illicit market to buy cannabis, where they will be
exposed to and offered other drugs."

Steve Rolles, of the drug reform group Transform, said: "Too many public
figures who support reform do not speak out for fear of vilification. Lord
Bingham should be applauded."

Lord Bingham, who is 68, served as Lord Chief Justice from 1996 until 2000,
when he became the first to be appointed a senior law lord.

In his interview, he also reiterated his desire to set up an American-style
Supreme Court and criticised the way judges sat in the House of Lords. "We
ought to be seen for what we are a " which is judges," he said, adding that
almost none of the law lords take part in the debates. "The House of Lords
should not have non-playing members," he said.