Stagg urges support for legalisation of cannabis

LABOUR chief whip Emmet Stagg has claimed cannabis should be legalised so that young people are taken out of the grip of the criminals behind the drugs trade.

He urged party members to support a motion calling for the “decriminalisation, regulation and taxation of supply of marijuana/cannabis”.

Had the motion been passed, it would have created difficulty for the party leadership, which is keenly aware of the need to appear “tough on crime” at a time when gangland murders — many related to the drugs trade — are on the increase.

But instead of deciding whether to support the motion or not, members voted for further debate on the proposal. The motion will now be sent back to Labour’s national executive committee for discussion.

Prior to the vote, Mr Stagg had argued that “in every pub and club and in many schools, young people [and not so young]” were purchasing cannabis from criminals.

“This trade is so lucrative for the criminals involved in its import and sale that they regularly murder one another for control of the market. Despite massive garda resources deployed to prevent its import and sale, only a tiny fraction of the total is captured.”

The country urgently had to “face a few facts”, Mr Stagg added. “Many citizens use cannabis as their social drug of choice and police forces all over the world have failed and will continue to fail to prevent them. While cannabis is banned and criminalised, criminals will continue to supply it, and young people and others will continue to use it and will be placed in the hands and controls of criminals.”

Mr Stagg stressed those behind the motion were not advocating “the use or easy availability” of cannabis. Instead, they were advocating “control of both use and supply”.

“We are advocating the system of control and use be such that we take our young people out of the maw of criminals,” he said.