The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Rennie admits he ‘had a joint’
Lib Dem leader defends party’s drugs policy
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has admitted he smoked cannabis as a student as he insisted his party’s plans to legalise the drug were not just aimed at grabbing headlines.
The party’s UK manifesto for the General Election includes a commitment to introduce a “legal regulated market” for the drug, which would be sold at “licensed outlets” to over-18s.
Questioned about this by callers to BBC Radio Scotland’s Call Kaye phonein programme, Mr Rennie said he would rather the government had “some control over the sale of this stuff than the gangs controlling it”.
One caller said to Mr Rennie: “I’d be happy if more politicians said ‘you know what, when I was at university I had a joint, I had a few ciders’, we all done it.”
The Scottish Lib Dem leader responded: “Well, I did.”
Ms Adams clarified with him: “You did smoke cannabis at university and you’re happy to say that.”
He said he did but when asked if he still used the drug, he said: “No.”
Mr Rennie quipped: “I might look like it, but I don’t.”
Another caller branded the policy as “very cynical” and claimed it was in the manifesto because it was “headlinegrabbing stuff”.
Mr Rennie explained that under his party’s proposals, cannabis would be sold in regulated stores, saying: “It would be controlled, the strains that were sold would be controlled to make sure that some of the more dangerous strains that have perhaps come on the market would be excluded.”
The stores would be state-controlled, he said, adding: “There would be no need for people to grow their own because there would be these regulated stores.”
The Lib Dem MSP said: “This is a difficult issue and people have got very strong views about drug misuse, and I understand why they’ve got strong views.
“We can say ‘nothing works, so let’s just leave it as it is’. I’m not prepared to do that.
“I have been round the drugs projects in Glasgow, I have seen how people’s lives have been blighted by the fact that this drugs policy we have just now has failed.”