LIBERTY
Reaction to David Blunkett's downgrading of cannabis - 10th July 2002

John Wadham, director of Liberty:

"Downgrading cannabis is a welcome step in the right direction - despite the mixed messages that come with it. Ultimately, we need legalisation.

"Criminalisation has failed; civil regulation is the way forward. People must be free to make their own choices.

"Branding all drug users criminals increases alienation, undermines public support for the criminal justice system; and increases crime to fund expensive addictions. It has fed the growth of violent and organised crime, and labels many honest people as criminal.

"Repressive laws to punish individual consumption of harmful substances are wholly disproportionate.

Society accepts that we can choose to take part in dangerous activities, from drinking and smoking to extreme sports; the same should be true here.

"Civil regulation and education must offer a better approach to the prevention of drug harm in a free society than prohibition".