|
Newsbrief:
Brit
MP
Calls
for
Drug
Testing
10-Year-Olds,
Comments
Came
in
Debate
Over
Criminal
Justice
Bill
12/27/02
The British Labor government's
effort to remake the criminal justice system in its pending Criminal Justice
Bill is sparking demands for an ever tougher approach to juvenile crime.
On December 17, Tory Member of Parliament Graham Allen one-upped everybody
by calling for the drug testing of children as young as 10 by police.
The Labor bill calls for
lowering the age of testing from 18 to 14. Only children suspected
for other crimes would be arrested. But 14 isn't nearly young enough,
said Allen, who serves on the parliamentary committee that began examining
the bill this week.
"The focus has been on the
civil liberty aspects of the bill -- my concern is the civic freedom of
intimidated witnesses, innocent victims, and frightened citizens," he told
the BBC News. "There are young people in my constituency who, by
age 14, are 'old hands' to drugs and well known to local police.
Drug testing of arrested children should begin at 10. After all,
10 is the age for criminal responsibility."
In addition to lowering the
age of drug testing, the bill has also come under attack for its proposals
to allow double jeopardy prosecutions and to allow prosecutors to reveal
the criminal convictions of defendants at trial -- both reversals of longstanding
British common law.
-- END --
|
Issue #269, 12/27/02
Latin American Anti-Prohibition Conference, Feb. 12-15, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico | Cumbre Internacional Sobre Legalización, 15-Dec Febrero, Mérida, México | Newsbrief: New Zealand MP Tanczos Cleared in Marijuana Probe | Newsbrief: Nevada High Court Voids Meth Drug Ingredient Law | Newsbrief: "What About the Children?" -- Colorado Bills Target Home Meth Labs | Newsbrief: Ohio Supreme Court Backs Workers in Workers' Comp Drug Test Ruling | Newsbrief: Brit MP Calls for Drug Testing 10-Year-Olds, Comments Came in Debate Over Criminal Justice Bill | Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cop Story | Newsbrief: US-Trained Thai Drug Unit Pulls Back from Burmese Border | Newsbrief: Columbia, Missouri, Marijuana Petition Has Enough Signatures | Newsbrief: Tampa Ordinance Would Criminalize "Drug Dealer Behavior" | Newsbrief: Drug Checkpoints at West Virginia NORML Rally Draw Lawsuit | Online Petition Launched Supporting MEPs' Call for Ending Prohibition | Media Scan: Montreal Compassion Club, Impact Press on Marijuana Legalization | DC Job Opportunities at DRCNet | The Reformer's Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|
