This is an issue I have taken an interest in over some time and have to date certainly never been convinced of the case for the legalisation of cannabis. However, I have not seen the thesis you have referred to and therefore I have passed your letter to the Home Secretary and asked for his comments.
I will get back to you as soon as I have received a response. In the meantime, if I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact my office.
Yours sincerely,
Dr George Turner MP
Kings Lynn
(MP for Norfolk North West)
29 June 1998
Further to my letter of the 29 June 1998, I have now received a reply from the Home Office, a copy of which I have enclosed for your information.
I note that you also wrote to the Home Office yourself and that Officials have recently replied to your letter. As you know, the Government beleives that it would be a serious mistake to legalise cannabis and have no intention of moving in that direction. Legalisation of cannabis would inevitably lead to large increases in consumption and a corresponding incresae in problems arising from that consumption. This is a view which I share.
I trust this information is of assistance. If I can be any further help, please do not hesitate to contact me again.
Dr George Turner MP
78 Chapel Street, Kings Lynn, Norfolk
39 July 1998-08-15
This is the letter from the Home Office to Dr Turner
Dear George,
Thank you for your letter of 29 June to Jack straw enclosing this one from...Kings Lynn...about the legalisation of cannabis. Home Office Officials wrote to him recently in reply to a similar letter which he sent to the Home Secreary.
Despite the claims of the FCDA and others, there is clear evidenbce of the harmful effects of cannabis and these are referred to and referenced in a 1997 World Health Organisation report, the summary of which I enclose. Not only does cannabis have acute and chronic health effects on individuals, but those who take it put others at risk if they drive or perate machinery, particularly if they take it in combination with alcohol.
The Government believes it would be a serious mistake to legalise the drug and has no intention of moving in that direction. The legalisation of cannabis would inevitably lead to large increases in consumption and a corresponding increase in the problems arising from that consumption.
Yours, George
George Howarth,
Home Office
Queen Anne's gate
London SW1H 9AT
24 July 1998