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Marijuana laws
ease up in the U.K.
By Tina Dhamija
On-line Forty-Niner
Laws focusing on
the use and sale of marijuana have been loosening as of late.
Last month the British government reclassified the drug to
"class C," making possession a non-arrestable offense.
Officials in San Francisco have proposed making the city an
official sanctuary for medical marijuana users and growers.
The United Kingdom decision was announced Oct. 23 by British
Home Secretary, David Blunkett. Under the new class C allotment,
marijuana is in the same category as steroids and anti-depressants,
the press release stated.
The law, which is not a legalization of the drug, would allow
for the maximum sentence on a marijuana charge to be two years
in prison if needed. The change in attitude, Blunkett said,
would allow police to "focus on more serious drugs."
The United Kingdom is not the only western nation to decrease
its punishment of marijuana growers and users. After the approval
of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, California
has implemented lesser charges for marijuana use as well.
The city of San Francisco has recently proposed to designate
itself an official, but symbolic sanctuary for the growth
and use of marijuana for strictly medical purposes.
San Francisco City Police Chief, Fred Lau went as far as to
assure medicinal users of the drug, that the city of San Francisco
will be "very compassionate" toward the matter.
Although the Bay Area proposal differs from the U.K.'s in
that it will only allow for medicinal users of the drug to
go unpunished, the subject alone has stirred opinions in places
closer to home.
"This subject has become a statewide debate," said
Bruce L. Berg, professor and chairman of the Cal State Long
Beach criminal justice department. "Los Angeles has changed
its attitude about drugs in the past six months, in that we've
become more about rehabilitation than jail time for drug offenders.
I think that with time and proper monitoring, we may have
some possibilities. But one major foreseeable problem with
it would be its transformation into the many problems we have
with alcohol already."
While some may condemn the use and sale of marijuana no matter
what the purpose, there are also some that believe the recent
marijuana decisions may be a step in the right direction.
"I think [the U.K. decision] is good," said Satomi
Shimada, a CSULB senior majoring in management information
systems. "I don't think reclassifying pot will encourage
people to smoke it because people are going to do it anyway."
Under Proposition 215, patients may use marijuana when a physician
has determined that the person's health would benefit from
its use in treatment of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and a variety
of other ailments that affect one's appetite and body pain.
Director of the CSULB Student Health Center, Renee Twigg,
entirely disagrees with recent decisions regarding the drug.
"I cannot condone what they're doing in another country,'
she said, referring to the U.K. decision, "but there
are just too many problems with alcohol and tobacco as it
is for us to make marijuana more accessible."
Although there has been no mention of California, let alone
the United States, following suit with the U.K. in re-classifying
the drug, immediate action on the issue has leaned more toward
acceptance of medicinal use of the drug.
"It depends on a person's health and history," said
Floria Myung, a senior psychology major. " If a person
has a health condition and they need to take it, then I think
arresting them for it is a little over the top. But if the
person has a history of being a drug addict and smoking marijuana
is ruining their life, then I think it should be an arrestable
offense."
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