A DRUGS PEACE DEAL

Brixton Pilot Should Lead To Wider Reform

Where politicians have feared to tread, the police have often been ready to
move. Scotland Yard can expect some flak for its more permissive approach
to possession of cannabis that begins on a pilot basis in parts of London
today.

But the key figure, the new home secretary, has already been squared.

To his credit, David Blunkett has given the pilot a cautious welcome.
Sensibly, Brixton is part of the pilot, which should help improve
police/black relations in this sensitive part of the inner city. But it
also makes sense in respect to the police's relations with young people,
far too many of whom are being "criminalised" by the current law.

Ludicrously, pot continues to dominate the policing of drugs. On
possession, which accounts for 90% of all drug charges, cannabis accounts
for 75% of cases.

It has driven the divisive stop-and-search operations. More than 90,000
people stopped every year are found to be in possession of the drug. Yet,
as the national commission on the drug laws noted last year, there are huge
variations in the way such possession is handled by the police.

Cautions range from 22% to 72% of all cases depending on the police force.

This is a serious distortion of the criminal justice system, which is not
meant to be a lottery and ought to seek a much more even-handed approach.

It is to be hoped that the pilot can lead the way to this end.

A new voice was added to the chorus of drug reformers yesterday. Mo Mowlam,
former Labour cabinet minister with responsibility for drug policy,
suggested in a new Sunday Mirror column that decriminalisation did not go
far enough.

She wanted it legalised so the supply side could be taken out of the hands
of criminal syndicates. This would be too far out for Tony Blair, but he
must reassess the advantages of decriminalisation. Four European states are
now following Holland's lead. British polls show widespread support, with
99% placing pot in the lowest police priority slot.