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Top tory leadership candidate challenges ecstasy taboo
14/11/2005
Hotly tipped Conservative politician David Cameron proposed adopting harm reduction based policies towards drugs on a televised debate this week, and called for ecstasy to be downgraded to Class B instead of Class A, a level below heroin and crack cocaine.
?The most important thing we thought was to make sure that the drug classifications make sense to young people and were credible,? Mr Cameron said on the BBC?s Question Time show, ?And I had a concern that if you put ecstasy and heroin in the same classification, people just don't take it seriously. On the Home Affairs Committee that is what we recommended.?
His forward thinking comments were consistent with those he made in 2002, when a cross party committee of MPs he served on recommended ecstasy the same thing after they examined the genuine health risks associated with different drugs rather than the falsehoods and drug war propaganda that dominate most mainstream debate.
"Drugs policy in this country has been failing for decades. Drug abuse has increased massively, the number of drug-related deaths has risen substantially and drug-related crime accounts for up to half of all acquisitive crime,? Mr Cameron pointed out in a statement issued by the committee at the time.
?I hope that our report will encourage fresh thinking and a new approach. We need to get away from entrenched positions and try to reduce the harm that drugs do both to users and society at large."
His enlightened position attracted support from fellow former Tory candidate Michael Portillo who applauded his consistency and supported his position,
?Ecstasy can exceptionally kill but to class it alongside heroin makes the law an ass,? he wrote in his Sunday Times column, ?(And) I doubt whether it will ruffle the Tory membership, many of whom take a worldly view. Among the electorate as a whole, Cameron?s stand will go down well,? he predicted.
Top tory leadership candidate challenges ecstasy taboo
14/11/2005
Hotly tipped Conservative politician David Cameron proposed adopting harm reduction based policies towards drugs on a televised debate this week, and called for ecstasy to be downgraded to Class B instead of Class A, a level below heroin and crack cocaine.
?The most important thing we thought was to make sure that the drug classifications make sense to young people and were credible,? Mr Cameron said on the BBC?s Question Time show, ?And I had a concern that if you put ecstasy and heroin in the same classification, people just don't take it seriously. On the Home Affairs Committee that is what we recommended.?
His forward thinking comments were consistent with those he made in 2002, when a cross party committee of MPs he served on recommended ecstasy the same thing after they examined the genuine health risks associated with different drugs rather than the falsehoods and drug war propaganda that dominate most mainstream debate.
"Drugs policy in this country has been failing for decades. Drug abuse has increased massively, the number of drug-related deaths has risen substantially and drug-related crime accounts for up to half of all acquisitive crime,? Mr Cameron pointed out in a statement issued by the committee at the time.
?I hope that our report will encourage fresh thinking and a new approach. We need to get away from entrenched positions and try to reduce the harm that drugs do both to users and society at large."
His enlightened position attracted support from fellow former Tory candidate Michael Portillo who applauded his consistency and supported his position,
?Ecstasy can exceptionally kill but to class it alongside heroin makes the law an ass,? he wrote in his Sunday Times column, ?(And) I doubt whether it will ruffle the Tory membership, many of whom take a worldly view. Among the electorate as a whole, Cameron?s stand will go down well,? he predicted.
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