Judge backs calls to legalise cannabis

Britain's most senior Law Lord today stunned government colleagues by calling for cannabis to be legalised.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Bingham's stance follows a House of Commons report calling for a relaxation of drug laws and the reclassification of ecstasy from a class A to the less dangerous class B drug.

He was asked by the Spectator magazine's editor Boris Johnson whether cannabis - which the Government plans to downgrade to a class C drug - should be legalised.

Lord Bingham answered bluntly: "Absolutely. It is stupid having a law which isn't doing what it is there for."

His response goes far beyond what the Government is planning and shows that calls for the legalisation of cannabis now have support from a far wider section of society than teenagers and ageing hippies.

The Church of England joined the controversy following the publication of yesterday's report by MPs when it called for cannabis to be decriminalised.

It said existing cannabis laws led to "bad relationships" between police and young people and said "nothing is gained by exaggerating its harmfulness".

The Church compared smoking cannabis to adultery, saying it is "wrong, but is not a crime". The Church's Board for Social Responsibility also called for a greater emphasis on the rehabilitation of drug users rather than punishment, echoing the findings of the committee.

Lord Bingham said he supported the conclusions of the Runciman Report, which two years ago backed sweeping liberalisation of Britain's drug laws.

He said Britain's courts are far from "soft" on crime. "It's one of the most punitive systems in the world," he said.

However, he did back Home Office plans to restrict trials by jury. "There are compelling reasons - of expense and so on - for a change," he said.