DRUGS TSAR REJECTS CANNABIS DECRIMINALISATION

The government drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell, today launched a veiled attack
on politicians and public figures who call for the decriminalisation of
cannabis. His comments came as he published his final report into drug use
in the UK. Overall drug use has "levelled off" despite increases in cocaine
use and experimentation by young people, according to the report.

The report said there had been good progress on the aims of the
government's 10-year drugs strategy. Mr Hellawell reported that seizures of
hard drugs rose by 4% according to figures for 1999, the latest data
available, and the number of people dealt with in Britain for supplying
class A drugs had risen more than 17%.

"We still have a lot to do - but the report shows what can be achieved when
we work together to tackle the drugs problem, especially the problem of
class A drugs, the drugs which do most harm," he said.

But he admitted to worrying over a trend towards increased cocaine use and
higher numbers of young people using drugs.

Mr Hellawell denied that the legalisation of soft and hard drugs - called
for by the increasingly vocal opponents of the government's drugs policy -
was the way forward. He also ruled out renewed calls to decriminalise cannabis.

"What we've got to do with that is not to throw our hands up and say 'we
will legalise them all', but it is actually to get involved in long term
educational programmes," he said.

Today's annual report will be the last from Mr Hellawell, who was demoted
when David Blunkett took over as home secretary in June. Mr Hellawell was
appointed as a US-style anti-drugs chief after the 1997 general election,
but he has come in for harsh criticism from Whitehall.

One of Mr Blunkett's first actions as home secretary was to sideline Mr
Hellawell by making his appointment part-time, with a focus on
international aspects of drug policy rather than national strategy.

Last month Mr Blunkett issued the clearest signal yet that policy could
eventually change on the legalisation of cannabis, calling for an "adult,
intelligent" debate on the issue, echoing comments made earlier by Mr
Hellawell. Mr Blunkett has already ordered police to concentrate on
targeting heroin and crack cocaine dealers rather than cannabis users.

The director of the drug law reform campaign Transform, Danny Kushlick,
said today that the government's 10-year drugs strategy had failed and that
Labour's policy was in crisis.

He said: "For years now the government has announced that the national
strategy is working and that it is just a question of time before we all
see the results. Meanwhile though, the price of street drugs continues to
fall, purity rises and drug-related crime spirals out of control."

There is currently an unprecedented debate on the future of UK drug laws,
which was bolstered last week when the all-party House of Commons home
affairs select committee announced it would hold an investigation into
decriminalisation of hard and soft drugs this autumn.

And police in Brixton have become the first in the UK to formally "turn a
blind eye" to possession of small amounts of cannabis, and now deal with
the crime by an official warning rather than arrest.