SOFT DRUGS WILL STAY ILLEGAL, SAYS BLUNKETT

HOME Secretary David Blunkett turned to two former South Yorkshire heroin
addicts for advice on the cannabis debate.

Sheffield Brightside MP Mr Blunkett was formally opening the new National
Probation Service's South Yorkshire head office when he met the pair who
are on drug treatment and testing orders.

He asked them whether they had started off on 'softer' drugs like cannabis
and whether they thought the Government should downgrade the drug from
class B to class C.

But he emphasised: "We're not going to legalise anything, there's not a
chance of that."

Phil and Lorraine, who are under drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs)
in Doncaster, both told the Home Secretary they had used cannabis. Phil
told Mr Blunkett that he had started taking cannabis when he was just
13-years-old.

"I think everybody I've met who's on heroin started off on cannabis," he said.

Phil said his heroin addiction had landed him in prison a few times. He was
put on a DTTO and said it had been "very hard".

"Every day's a struggle," said Phil who is now training in carpentry at
college.

The pair are now meeting with probation staff five days a week and receive
counselling as well courses of methadone to help them give up their addictions.

Opening the South Yorkshire head office on Sheffield's Division Street, Mr
Blunkett said he wanted to "stop offending by intervening in the right way
at the right time. The more you bang people up in jail the more likely they
are to reoffend," he said.

Mr Blunkett also said that Britain has the second largest prison population
in Europe - after Portugal. "We have to intervene in the early stages and
prevent people literally falling back into crime.

"We want to reduce the prison population and release the resources to
invest in community action."

He added that around 70 per cent of all burglaries are drug-related.

During his visit, Mr Blunkett listened to presentations on three pioneering
areas of work - prolific offender projects, the drink impaired drivers
programme, and DTTOs. He also asked the public for their views on a wide
range of options which could transform the way criminals are sentenced.

He called for a "common sense, effective approach" to sentencing as he
highlighted six areas of the wide-ranging Halliday report, published in
July, on which he would like to receive public comment.

Mr Blunkett again floated the idea of "intermittent prisons" where
offenders are locked up during certain hours - for example, at weekends -
but are allowed to go to work and see their families at other times.

"How criminals are punished is too important to be left to judges and
politicians alone," Mr Blunkett said.