'75% of my children’s generation have smoked cannabis': Richard Branson tells MPs drug issue is health issue, NOT crime problem



Sir Richard Branson called for the liberalisation of drugs laws yesterday – as he claimed three-quarters of young adults had tried cannabis.

The Virgin tycoon – who has admitted smoking the drug and using cocaine and ecstasy – said it was wrong to criminalise those with a drug problem.

Addicts should be given treatment, not sent to jail, he said.

Evidence: Sir Richard Branson was quizzed by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee

Sir Richard, a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, was addressing the Home Affairs Committee on drug laws. He said: ‘I would say 50 per cent of my generation had smoked cannabis.

‘I would say 75 per cent of my children’s generation had smoked cannabis. There are between three and five million cannabis smokers in the UK.’

Asked if it had affected his health, the 61-year-old said: ‘If I was smoking cigarettes, I would be very worried.’

Sir Richard called on governments to experiment with decriminalising the possession of drugs and even regulating and selling cannabis.

Grilling: Sir Richard was asked questions by MPs, including Keith Vaz

But he said he was not advocating that heroin or cocaine be ‘sold in supermarkets’.

He said: ‘If governments wish to go further with say cannabis and deregulate and tax cannabis, that’s something we think governments in some countries should experiment with as well.

‘At least then you can make sure the quality of the cannabis is good quality.

Facing the elements: Sir Richard comes in from the rain after arriving at Portcullis House in Westminster

‘Skunk is something which is too strong whereas normal marijuana is found by Lancet and other magazines and other studies to be less harmful than alcohol.’

Sir Richard went on to say it was wrong to give criminal records to drug users.

Instead drug addicts should be put before a health panel and helped to get off drugs, as in countries such as Portugal.

He said: ‘If my brother or sister has a drug problem or my children have a drug problem I do not want the law involved.’

‘I don’t think most people I know would want the law to get involved – we would want them to get help.’ He said 100,000 people were arrested for taking drugs last year and as a result 75,000 would have a criminal record.

‘Treatment is a lot cheaper than prison and more effective. There is enormous benefit to individuals in society,’ he said.

Sir Richard has two children. Doctor Holly, 30, married Freddie Andrewes earlier this month on Necker, her billionaire father’s private Caribbean island. His son Sam, 26, is a television producer who is making a documentary about the drugs trade.

Tycoon's Children: Holly and Sam Branson

In a 2007 interview with Piers Morgan, Sir Richard said he ‘took ecstasy once’ and, asked about cocaine said ‘I suspect I’ve tried it, yes.’

He also said his employees would not be fired automatically if caught taking drugs. ‘Hopefully we would try to help them and find out what their problem is,’ he said. ‘They certainly would not be automatically dismissed.

‘There are people in every company who have drink problems, people addicted to smoking, people who take too much marijuana, or even more serious drugs, and need to be helped.’

The committee’s previous inquiry in 2002, when David Cameron was a member, said drug use was a ‘passing phase’ for many young people which ‘rarely results in any long-term harm’.

Richard Branson in his younger days. The mogul has been cited as saying he would sell marijuana if it was legal

The cross-party group dismissed legalisation and decriminalisation but, paving the way for future changes, urged ministers to lobby for the loosening of international treaties which prohibit such radical steps. Speaking more than ten years ago, Mr Cameron said the UK’s drugs policy ‘has been failing for decades’ and said he hoped the report ‘will encourage fresh thinking and a new approach’. The Home Office has already said it has ‘no intention of liberalising our drugs laws’. Branson in 1971: The businessman, pictured here at 21-years-old, will appear before a drug policy inquiry by the Home Affairs Select Committee tomorrow



