Government should not give a kneejerk response. Nor will Liberal Democrats. We have long urged objective assessment of the law and therefore welcome the new public debate. We shall give our considered response later this year. Experimenting with different legal responses to drugs in one or more of the four countries of the United Kingdom could be a very intelligent way forward.
Few people believe that changing nothing is an option.
Legalisation would make turning to crime much less of an easy option for young people. I accept that for some people cannabis may not be a safe drug but, during the millennia that it has been in use, it has not proved to be that dangerous. I smoke cigarettes, and think cannabis does me less harm than nicotine.