CANNABIS SHOULD BE LEGALISED, SAYS SENIOR LAW JUDGE

Lord Bingham, the senior law lord, called yesterday for abolition of the
laws against cannabis.

Asked during an interview for The Spectator whether he would legalise
cannabis, Lord Bingham replied: "Absolutely. It is stupid having a law
which isn't doing what it is there for."

When asked by The Telegraph whether that was an accurate account of his
views, he said he thought it probably was. "I think I probably did say that
I thought one should concentrate on hard drugs," he said. Pressed on
whether he had called for all restrictions on cannabis to be lifted, Lord
Bingham said he could not remember exactly how his conversation with Boris
Johnson, the magazine's editor, had gone. "But I certainly expressed the
view that it was very unsatisfactory having a law that was so widely
disregarded," he said. Asked again whether he would legalise all aspects of
cannabis supply and use, Lord Bingham said: "I think what I actually said,
probably, was that I supported what Ruth Runciman had recommended but I may
not have been as specific as that." That would be his view, he confirmed.

The inquiry chaired by Lady Runciman for the independent Police Foundation
recommended two years ago that cannabis should be downgraded from a class B
to a class C drug.

Possession should be punishable only by cautions or fixed fines and
"prosecution would be the exception". The police would lose the power to
arrest for possession of cannabis, unless the offender's identity was in
doubt. The Runciman recommendations on cannabis were accepted by the Home
Secretary last October.

David Blunkett announced then that the drug would be downgraded to class C,
putting it on a par with anabolic steroids and anti-depressants such as
Temazepam. That proposal was supported by the Commons home affairs
committee this week and the necessary legal changes are expected within the
next few months.

Lord Bingham's comments suggest he believes that reclassifying cannabis in
this way would amount to - or eventually lead to - the drug becoming as
legal to use as tobacco.

The home affairs select committee rejected legalisation of cannabis as
such, saying it would send out the wrong message to young people. Kevin
Flemen, acting director of the drug charity Release, said he
"whole-heartedly supported" Lord Bingham's comments. "Reclassifying
cannabis, as David Blunkett suggests, is a fudge with precious few benefits
apart from saving police time," he said. Lord Bingham, 68, was Lord Chief
Justice of England and Wales from 1996 until 2000, when he was promoted to
the post of senior law lord.