Note : This really does show that Tony Blair is a very confused man on cannabis!
SIR DAVID FROST: Billy Smith of Glasgow says does the government have any plans to ban smoking in public places?
PRIME MINISTER: There is a consultation paper out that is about where people can smoke and not. I think what is important again here is to try and reach the right balance. People don't want something that is so heavily interventionist that it leads to all the nanny state stuff and all the rest of it; on the other hand, I think lots of people like for example the fact that on public transport there are curbs on smoking. So we are consulting on it, we will take a range of opinions on it. I think for most of it we see the best thing is for government to try and send as clear a signal as it can that smoking is bad for your health and that the less you do of it the better for you. Remember that smoking costs the country in terms of the National Health Service, lost days at work, a vast amount every year.
SIR DAVID FROST: Jim from London said that according to the government's own figures, tobacco is responsible for 120,000 deaths in the UK in one particular year, 1995. Cannabis use has never been positively linked to a single death yet the government is willing to reap vast sums from tobacco taxation whilst criminalising anyone who is found in possession of cannabis. Is this not somewhat inconsistent?
PRIME MINISTER: The problem is that if you legalise cannabis, decriminalise it, then there are a whole lot of other problems that come with it, which is why we have been against doing so. And I think that the experience in Holland for example, it may just be in certain limited areas, but they have decriminalised cannabis, there are a lot of problems with hard drug users that have come along with that. Now I don't doubt there is a public debate that will carry on, but the government's position is that this will be the wrong move and the wrong signal to send to people.
SIR DAVID FROST: The advocates say the Dutch have reduced the number of cannabis smokers but at the price of hard drug users, you are saying?
PRIME MINISTER: I think when you talk to people in Holland about this experiment it has been very mixed, the results of it. I also think, if I think of my own children, I wouldn't really want to be encouraging them to take up drugs in any form at all.
SIR DAVID FROST: Do you envisage a time when it will be illegal to buy cigarettes?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't think so, I don't think anyone is suggesting that.