28/10/01 - Rosie Boycott, former IoS editor & campaigner for legalisation. In truth, I never thought it would really happen. I never thought this government would even begin to relax the drugs laws. At least not so quickly and with such a broad reach - a first move that not only proposed that cannabis be declassified from Class B to Class C, but also opened the door for patients to obtain the drug on prescription. Four years and four weeks ago to this day, when the IoS launched its campaign to decriminalise cannabis, the attitude of the Labour Party was one of extreme hostility. Alastair Campbell said we were middle-class journos acting out our student hippy days from the safety of Canary Wharf.
Even fellow hacks had a good laugh at our expense. I well remember meeting the late political correspondent Tony Bevins at a party at that year's Labour Party conference and being told that it was sheer madness: Labour would never, repeat never, do anything of the kind. At a lunch that same week, Gordon Brown did not disguise his sympathy for what we were doing, but it was clear that Labour's fear of Middle England and the Daily Mail was just too overwhelming for such a move to be countenanced.
April 2, 1998 - British Protest To Legalize Marijuana Draws 10,000'
Over 10,000 participants took to the streets of London on Saturday to show support for relaxing the nation's marijuana laws. The high profile protest, organized by the Independent on Sunday newspaper which is campaigning to decriminalize the drug, marked the first time in 30 years so many British citizens stood up for marijuana-law reform.
"The widespread turnout is not surprising," said Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation. "Recent surveys and public opinion polls indicate that British voters solidly support legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational purposes."
"What we want to see is [Parliament] debating [legalizing marijuana] openly, freely, and weighing the evidence from the World Health Organization and from the British Medical Council," said Independent on Sunday editor Rosie Boycott, who attended the march. Recently, the campaign gained supporters in Parliament, as well as business giants Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.
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