Countess courts rich and famous to end drug war

By Tom Peterkin
Published on Sunday 27 November 2011 00:45

THE neo-classical splendour of Gosford House, one of Scotland’s finest stately homes, would appear to be a far cry from the misery caused by armed drugs cartels in Mexico.

But an aristocratic member of the family which owns the Robert Adam mansion in East Lothian is leading a high-profile campaign to decriminalise drugs in the belief that it is the only way to tackle the suffering and violence caused by the illicit drugs trade.

Celebrities including Sting and Yoko Ono, a string of Nobel Laureates and the former US president Jimmy Carter are among those supporting the Countess of Wemyss in her bid to reform drugs policy.

Her impressive list of backers, which includes the Nobel Prize-winning scientists Sir Harold Kroto and Sir Anthony Leggett, are calling on the British government to recognise that the global war on drugs has failed and look at taking a new approach.

Speaking to Scotland on Sunday, Wemyss said she felt “passionately” that it was her “social duty” to persuade the government of the merits of decriminalising drugs.

“I have seen what terrible damage drugs do in the world – what terrible suffering it causes,” she said.

“It is probably the issue that causes more suffering in the world, which could be greatly lessened by better handling. Because of the taboo that has grown up about drugs, politicians around the world are not willing to discuss it.”

The suffering caused by the Mexican drugs war is a driving force behind her Beckley Foundation, the body she set up to research drugs policy and which is behind her latest campaign, backed by celebrities and scientists, named after her mansion in Oxfordshire.

“Mexico is really in a state of war, because the Americans buy the drugs for guns. These cartels are amazingly well armed and have billions of dollars to hide away and wash in different ways. Keeping drugs criminalised isn’t the way to go, because there are now millions of people in jail for drug-related offences – mainly little fish, like users and small-time dealers and, in my opinion, we should not treat drug use as a crime, if there is no other crime attached.”

Wemyss, 67, who has admitted using cannabis and LSD herself, believes that the first step the UK government should take is to license the production of cannabis. That would enable the drug to be taxed and would ensure the quality of the drug, and tackle the issue of extremely potent forms, such as skunk, being sold to the unsuspecting.

“It [cannabis] can be grown by government licensed growers so that the content and strength would be carefully labelled. So people know what they are buying and it wouldn’t have damaging insecticides. When it is grown by criminals, you don’t know what is in the substance, what the strength is, what the constituents are. If it was a regulated market and there would be very strict controls, no advertising, no selling to people below a certain age. People would lose their licences if they sold to the underage. It would then be taxed and the tax would be high, because one wouldn’t want the price to drop too low.”

She added: “Some people maybe prefer cannabis to alcohol and cannabis is less harmful medically than alcohol. Most people suffer nothing from its use and on the whole probably drop the habit in their 30s when they get married and have children – not all but most people do.”

The aristocrat is no stranger to controversy. Aged 23, she was filmed drilling a hole in her skull – an ancient practice known as trepanning – that aims to give the brain more oxygen as a means of getting “high”.

Provocatively, she believes more progress would be made towards decriminalisation if politicians were as candid as she is about their drug use.

“We need all the people in positions of authority who have experimented with it – like many members of our government – to say ‘yes, I recognise why people experiment with them. They do have benefits and they do have harm’,” she said.

“We need to approach it in a rational, scientific manner and not think that anyone who smoked cannabis is a reprobate.

“Many of the top scientists, philosophers and thinkers have tried it.”

David Cameron, of course, has been dogged by speculation he might have taken cocaine as a younger man.

“I think it is a terrible pity it should be thorny issue and don’t think that should in any way deflect his intention to try to be a leader in trying to solve this problem. Don’t let’s hold it against people and he shouldn’t be ashamed if he has or if he hasn’t. That is his personal business,” Wemyss said. “Over 50 per cent of people of his generation and younger have experimented. There is nothing wrong with experimenting. We like our young people to be experimental.”

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George Coutts

Monday, November 28, 2011 at 03:04 PM

How do you stop Drugs entering Scoland by road?. Simple ,Build a Canal at the border so you enter by Ferry or Plane. Outcome of such a simple thing is ,No more drugs by road, no more Diseased Cattle, and busy Ports. Wow why did´´nt we think of it before. As the Meercat would say.....Seeemple!!.

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antiparasite

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 10:58 PM

5.. Yes, we have our own 'scientists' in Scotland talking rubbish to the media, yet at the same time going for patents for the best plant of earth.... She talked about 'new super strong' strains (lies) and that CBD has been bred out of cannabis (lies)... The greed of people like 'professor' Ross up in Aberdeen hold humanity back............ We haved pressure from the oil industry, cotton and forestry among many others, and they all benefit from keeping this ancient plant away, and peoples minds in line.... I'd like our soo called world leaders to consume some quality Cannabis before they all sit down, things would soon change.. If that never worked you could could sort them out with a few pills ;)

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antiparasite

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 10:29 PM

7... And they groups you mention don't have an agenda to keep drugs illegal?... Are you incapable of doing your own research and making your own opinion, or just another that needs told what to think by the media??....

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7

Iketa

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 07:48 PM

Just read the Wikipedia entry for the Countess of Wemyss, sounds like a right zoomer, trepanning is just the tip of iceberg... I would be interested to hear the pros and cons of legalisation from somebody with regular contact with drug users at the coal face such as doctors, polis, social workers for example... not a loopy Duchess with a personal agenda.

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JasonShort

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 01:56 PM

yet more pepole who want cannabis legalised i hope they will have more of an effect than whats already been made

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matrix

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 12:54 PM

The reason its not legal yet is that the powers that be are making sure that all the patents are in place for big pharma and big booze so that the Neo Mafia get the profits instead of the old ones. There have been patents taken out in the last year on both LSD and MDMA as treatments for post traumatic stress disorder. The problem with government control is exactly that. They will use it to control us in the same way that they use the poison methadone to control heroin addicts. Personally speaking I got sick of the quality of stuff a few years ago and started making my own. Anyone with high school chemistry can make MDMA and the syntheses are on the web. The last stuff was made from black pepper which is kind of difficult to ban. In fact there was also salt and vinegar in the synthesis. Maybe they should ban chippies. There is a book online called Total Synthesis 2 by a guy called Strike which is written for beginners and if everyone is making for their own use then why do we need government in the first place? Oops sorry thats why its banned. Because they dare to make us think we do not need them.

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brianwci

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 12:46 PM

Thank God common sense is receiving big name support. The so called 'drug war' has been going for more than 60 years on both sides f the Atlantic. When I was at primary school in the 50s I didn't even know drugs existed, today primary kids can tell you what there is, where you can get it and h0w much you get and how much it will cost. Worse still, many of these kids have been sucked into distribution and sale of these drugs in their own communities and even, tragically, using the drugs themselves. If 100 tons of drugs on the street bring the dealers £100, and customs find and confiscates 50 tons, the dealers simply double the price so they still make their £100 and the users double their efforts to steal in order to get their fix. (These numbers are of course simplifications). Dr Robertson in Edinburgh has advocated this for decades. Free controlled drugs kills the drugs trade dead and the need for addicts to rob and kill to afford their fix. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to work that one out.

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bumpkin

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 12:19 PM

what about the dubious earnings used to build gosford? was it robbed from tenant farmers or earned from slave plantations? most palatial homes were build on someone elses squalor.

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Peter Reynolds

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 10:58 AM

Eminent common sense but will our deeply corrupt government, bribed by Big Booze and Big Pharma, ever allow it? The Daily Mail's 40 year campaign of lies, misinformation and blatant falsification of scientific evidence has been remarkably successful so that even intelligent, usyually well informed people, think that cannabis is dangerous. The Daily Mail's lies suit the government very well. Perhaps the only thing that can change this is money. Recently Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) published independent research that shows a tax and regulate policy on cananbis would produce a net gain to the UK of £6.7 billion per annum as well as reducing all health and social harms. Will this be enough to defeat the liars at the Daily Mail, in the Home Office and in No. 10?

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antiparasite

Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 03:52 AM

If we are going to have licenced growers selling beneficial herb without any damaging insecticides and hopefuly nutrients, could we have the same conditions put on food producers too?...... Genisis1:29 cover's the religous aspect of it, science proves the benefits, so why is it still illegal??.... One little plant that could change the world needs to be free!!!

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