‘Hash is a part of student life’
Gerard Seenan
Thursday July 11, 2002
The Guardian
There is nothing like the presence of proud parents to make the average student reticent on the subject of drugs, but for some of Glasgow University’s new graduates cannabis is not a real drug anyway.
“It’s a part of student life,” said Tom yesterday. “You don’t need to seek it out; and, also, you would have to have lived a sheltered existence to have never come across hash at some point during your four years here. It’s a drug, in the way a pint or a fag is a drug, but not in the way smack is.”
For Tom – who did not want to give his second name, in case his opinions marred his parents’ joy at the degree scroll he was carrying – the home secretary’s plan to lower the classification of cannabis from class B to class C is not sensible.
“It’s just a cop out, isn’t it?” he said. “The police are not going to lift you at a party for having a half Q [eighth of an ounce] just now, so what difference will this make? It would make far more sense to legalise it completely.”
His friend, Graeme, agreed, while also being reticent about his surname. “Playing about with the classification is just tinkering around the edges. Why doesn’t he just admit you can’t do anything about people smoking blow, and there’s no point in trying? At least if you decriminalised cannabis you could concentrate resources more on the others.”
Student Nazir Ahmed was not impressed with the move either, though for different reasons. “There are loads of students who spend half their lives sitting around smoking and never doing anything. Cannabis is an easy drug to get into, and it can be destructive because of that.”
Michael O’Donnell was a bit confused about what the reclassification actually meant.
“It’s difficult to know what they’ll mean now, about ‘intent to supply’,” he said. “If, say, me and my mates all chipped in for an ounce, because it’s cheaper, and I went and got it, then I would be technically supplying – which is just nonsense. They won’t be treated as criminals for smoking it, but I would be for going to get it.”
