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CNN Saturday Morning News
Britain May Make Cannabis a Lower-Schedule Drug
Aired March 23, 2002 - 07:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, this is one of those stories that the writers who sit behind us just wait for, right?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Because it allows them to employ every pun that they can possibly imagine.
PHILLIPS: Creative writing to the highest.
O'BRIEN: So submitted -- You did it.
PHILLIPS: I did it. That just came to me, too. We're talking about pot smokers in Britain. They're very -- well, they're in high spirits today.
O'BRIEN: I don't know about you, but I got the munchies. I need to get a break. So let's roll the tape.
Hala Gorani has our story. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chris Baldwin has been smoking the equivalent of 10 cannabis joints a day for the last 33 years. He says Britain's plan to go softer on marijuana consumption makes Dutch-style coffee shops the next natural step up in the U.K.
And when he finds a locale, he's opening his own pot shop in the small southern sea town of Worthing.
CHRIS BALDWIN, CANNABIS ACTIVIST: I'd like to provide eventually, ultimately, a full Dutch-style coffee shop menu, which would be a selection of eight to 10 grasses, eight -- you know, eight to 10 different weights, eight to 10 different hashes.
GORANI: Britain's main drug advisory group recently suggested cannabis be downgraded from a class B drug, like amphetamines, to a class C substance like steroids. That means pot would still be illegal, but selling and consuming it would become minor offenses, the kind rarely enforced.
(on camera): Now, coffee shop campaigners are determined to take advantage of the government's softer stance on drugs to go into business, and with shops planned across Britain from Manchester to sleepy towns like Worthing, some say Britain is headed for trouble.
PETER HITCHENS, EDITOR, "DAILY MAIL": It will increase crime. It will increase lassitude and sloth. It will increase the general level of drug-taking in society, because it will introduce more and more people to the idea that drug-taking has nothing wrong.
GORANI (voice-over): But pot smokers from across Britain who regularly stage pro-cannabis protests say their in-your-face tactic will work, eventually turning an unlawful practice into a de facto legal business.
BALDWIN: If they find things there, they'll come along and bust us. But basically they'll get fed up with it. You know, they can't -- they haven't got the resources to just keep turning up every day and busting us.
GORANI: Among Baldwin's veteran pot-smoking friends, there is also widespread support for cannabis cafes.
(on camera): Why not enjoy it the way you've enjoyed it for 30 years? What's wrong with that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we've enjoyed it, but we've felt like criminals doing it, don't forget. We've all felt like criminals. Why? I want it to be legal, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If enough people do it, it'll be less trouble for everybody.
GORANI (voice-over): Whether Britain will replicate the Dutch experience will largely depend on British society's response to these coffee shops. If police turn a blind eye and if neighbors don't complain, chances are that in the near future, wherever you are in Britain, there might be a pot shop near you.
Hala Gorani, CNN, Worthing, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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