Sutton Coldfield Local - Saturday, November 15th, 2014 - by Frances Geddes, Birmingham Eastside
Sutton Coldfield MP rejects calls to legalise cannabis
Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell has rejected calls to legalise cannabis.
Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell opposes the legalisation of cannabis as suggested by fellow Conservative Peter Lilley
Conservative MP Peter Lilley made the suggestion in Parliament after arguing that current legislation was ineffective and costing too much to enforce.
But Mr Mitchell insisted that his Tory colleague’s view was not the solution to the the problem of drugs. He said:
“Our current laws draw on the best available evidence. The official advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs confirms that cannabis is a significant public health issue.
“I, therefore, do not feel that it should be legalised as suggested by Mr Lilley.”
Cannabis is recognised as a class B drug, meaning anyone caught with it could face up to five years in prison or a £90 on-the-spot fine.
Mr Lilley, MP for Hitchin and Harpenden, suggested the cannabis should be legalised, but its use restricted to non-public places.
He said:
“I focused on the important distinction between soft and hard drugs, and on whether cannabis should be treated differently from hard drugs. I concluded that it should be, and that we should move to the legalisation of cannabis.
“If we could provide some legal outlets for cannabis, we would be able to focus more of the effort on the drugs that do the greatest harm. The effort of trying to prohibit cannabis is ineffective.
“We are undermining respect for the law by having a law that is widely disregarded and one that is harder to justify in a country which, after all, legalises the sale of alcohol, which can do at least as much damage as cannabis, and legalises the sale of nicotine and cigarettes, which can have more lethal consequences in the long term.”