Nick Clegg is to tell EU leaders to support weaker drugs laws globally, in a campaign funded by Richard Branson and George Soros.
Despite being criticised before the General Election for favouring liberal legislation, Clegg is to make his case at a United Nations summit on global drugs policy in April next year.
Writing in The Independent, the former Deputy Prime Minister claimed the ‘war on drugs’ is being lost. He praised European countries that have decriminalised drugs or adopted ‘harm reduction’ approaches, such as injection rooms.
Hardliners
He said: “There is much to play for, but a real risk that this opportunity for modernisation will be lost if the hardliners are allowed to assert their position unchallenged.”
Clegg’s campaign is being funded by pro-legalisation celebrity Richard Branson, and American billionaire George Soros.
Soros has reportedly donated more than £130 million to campaigns for liberalising drugs laws over the last 20 years.
Criminalised
Earlier this year, Clegg was criticised over an article he wrote with Branson, in which they said drug users should not be criminalised.
The Centre for Social Justice think-tank said that many charities working with the fallout of drug addiction are against weakening drugs laws.
“Many are right to be worried that liberalising cannabis laws will lead to more people taking drugs and developing harder use.
Devastating
“Politicians need to listen to these experts. They are the people who witness the devastating impact of drugs in our poorest neighbourhoods day in, day out”.
A survey commissioned by The Christian Institute last year showed that fewer than one in four (24 per cent) support a more liberal stance on drugs.