Community | June 02, 2011 | 9 comments

A-List Celebrities Urge Cameron To Decriminalise Drugs Possession

It's not often A-list celebrities dare to come out in favour of something as controversial as the decriminalisation of drugs, but that's just what Dame Judi Dench, Sting, Sir Richard Branson, Mike Leigh, Julie Christie and many others have done today.

In a signed open letter published in today's Guardian they urge Prime Minister David Cameron to consider an "immediate decriminalisation of drug possession" if a "swift and transparent" policy review of current practices show it has failed.

The letter to David Cameron aims to mark this week's 40th anniversary of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.

The celebrities are joined by an ex-drugs minister and three former chief constables, leading lawyers, and a score of former world leaders in calling for the decriminalisation of the possession of all drugs.

Its signatories say that all the past 40 years has produced is a rapid growth in illicit drug use in Britain, and significant harm caused by the application of the criminal law to the personal use and possession of all drugs.

"This policy is costly for taxpayers and damaging for communities," they claim. "Criminalising people who use drugs leads to greater social exclusion and stigmatisation making it much more difficult for them to gain employment and to play a productive role in society. It creates a society full of wasted resources."

The letter launching the campaign, Drugs – It's Time for Better Laws, has been organised by the national drugs charity Release.

It points out that nearly 80,000 people were found guilty or cautioned for the possession of illegal drugs in 2010 – most of whom were young, black or poor. Over the past decade, more than a million people have ended up with a criminal record as a result of the drug laws.

The letter coincides with Thursday's New York launch of the report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which counts three former South American presidents, the former secretary-general of the United Nations Kofi Annan and Sir Richard Branson among its membership.

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    Community,   News and Politics
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    Celebrity,  Crime,  Marijuana,  Drugs,  5 more
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9 comments // A-List Celebrities Urge Cameron To Decriminalise Drugs Possession

  • kezzy
    • -1
      kezzy  

    • I just don't understand how the benefits of this situation can outweight the cons. Recreational drug usage would surely cause more harm than good? Decriminalising it would mean it would be widely available. A drug culture would come about, dealers would make their millions. It would pervade every aspect of our lives, is that what we want?

      It would result in greater hospitalisation of overdosers and people who've lost their minds with psychotic drugs - more for our already overwhelmend health service to have work with! It could create millions more addicts who would do anything to get their fix, even breaking the law. They do serious physical/psychological harm, how could we possibly allow this. It ruins lives.

    • 12 months ago
  • chipokae
    • 0
      chipokae  

    • I have never understood how a bunch of guys in suits, who screwed over enough people and kissed enough ass to get into power, can say what you can or cannot do with your own body and people think its ok. Is there really anyone on the planet who doesnt do drugs just because they are illegal?

    • 12 months ago
  • jubal
  • manhattan_project
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • http://www.leap.cc/

      Welcome to LEAP!
      Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is an international organization of criminal justice professionals who bear personal witness to the wasteful futility and harms of our current drug policies. Our experience on the front lines of the “war on drugs” has led us to call for a repeal of prohibition and its replacement with a tight system of legalized regulation, which will effectively cripple the violent cartels and street dealers who control the current illegal market.

    • 12 months ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • 'Voices of Reason'! It does my heart good to read of their courage. Over 20 years ago I started sharing cannabis hemp information.

      After reading the book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", I was sure things would change. All those facts contained in a book. Information removed from educational material, making room for disinformation. When one doesn't know the facts, leading to truth, one can be misled with spun madness for political gain. Politicians used the 'war on drugs' for political gain

      Unfortunately, the corporations who do not want to see cannabis hemp legal also control what America does, or does not hear. They move us along to lies, distortion and spin and move us away from facts and 'voices of reason'. Black is white, hot is cold, the earth is flat. So the truth appears to be just another distortion. I think it's 'distortion' with purpose. People don't trust anything anymore. But, if you hear a lie often enough, it sounds like the truth.

    • 12 months ago
  • noxidereus
    • +1
      noxidereus  

    • The illegality of drugs is an implement of power enacted brutally by the elite against the poor and dissenting masses. It's one of many ways for the few to divide and conquer the many.

    • 12 months ago
  • CalgarC
    • +2
      CalgarC  

    • these aren't just celebrities like the idiots you see today... these people are amazing, they actually did something with their lives, i wouldn't be surprised if they support decriminalization

    • 12 months ago
  • Wicks934
sbacker
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