BREAKING THE LAST TABOO IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS

Home Secretary Signals Support For Proposal By South London Police To
Caution Rather Than Hold Those Possessing Small Quantities

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, signalled an important shift in
government thinking on drugs yesterday when he declared he was "interested"
in radical new police proposals on cannabis possession.

In a move welcomed by campaigners for drug reform, Mr Blunkett said hard
drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine should be the "absolute priority"
for police resources.

The Home Secretary said that a scheme run by police in Lambeth, south
London, to caution rather than arrest those in possession of cannabis,
"fits in entirely" with government policy.

His remarks came as all the contenders for the leadership of the
Conservative Party broke with tradition and called for a national debate on
Britain's drug laws and practice. Michael Portillo, Michael Ancram, David
Davis and Iain Duncan Smith all said that politicians should be brave
enough to engage in a discussion of the issue.

In contrast to his predecessor, Jack Straw, who refused to contemplate
alternative approaches, Mr Blunkett highlighted work of the Metropolitan
Police in Brixton. Under the direction of Lambeth's police chief, Commander
Brian Paddick, the local force will oversee the most radical approach to
drug use seen in Britain to date.

Instead of arresting and charging those found in possession of soft drugs
such as cannabis, from early next month police officers will issue a formal
caution.

When asked if he would like to see the scheme repeated nationally, Mr
Blunkett told BBC's Breakfast with Frost that the policy was in line with
his own plans to direct police resources against hard drugs.

"I talked to Brian Paddick the first Tuesday after the election down in
Lambeth. I went to visit their command unit and he actually told me what he
was about to do," he said.

Mr Blunkett stressed that Commander Paddick's "experiment" fitted his own
emphasis of "placing absolute priority on class A drugs on both the
trafficking in drugs and people and weaponry and on concentrating police
resources where they're needed most.

"So I'm interested in the experiment," Mr Blunkett said.

He said he would not discourage a national debate on the issue and was
preparing to expand the co-ordinated drug strategythat he inherited from
the Cabinet Office.

Home Office sources said that while Mr Blunkett was not advocating
decriminalisation for the whole country, he did believe that it was an
operational matter for police forces to decide upon.

Mr Blunkett also pointed out that the Conservative leadership contenders
had been advocating a debate, a fact that was borne out when all of them
issued statements backing such a move.

Mr Portillo told the same television programme: "Many people in this
country now have a view on this, they either have personal experience or
they have experience in their families, and they must think it is very
extraordinary that the political class is not prepared to debate the issue.

"I don't know what the answer to this is. But I do believe that if people
in politics are to claim to represent the people of the country, then they
have got to be seen at least to be willing to understand and to address
issues that people out there are talking about."

Mr Ancram told GMTV's Sunday Programme that he didn't support
decriminalisation of cannabis but added that the law should be applied
"intelligently" by officers on the ground.

Mr Duncan Smith said he was willing to look at the issue if he became
leader. "Policing should be concerned with clearing drugs off the street to
leave people free to get on with their lives, not raiding people in their
houses," he said. "There are margins of tolerance, there is a difference
between usage and dealing."

Mr Davis, who kicked off the debate, said politicians owed it to parents to
discuss the issue so the facts of the case could be aired sensibly. The new
approach by the senior Tories contrasts starkly with that of Ann
Widdecombe, the shadow Home Secretary, who caused uproar in the Shadow
Cabinet when she called for a toughening of the law on users of cannabis.

But Mr Blunkett's openness to a change of policy is what will surprise most
observers, given his supporters' claim that he would "make Jack Straw look
like a liberal".

In assessing schemes such as the Lambeth one and signalling an openness to
a debate, Mr Blunkett may be ready to break one of the last taboos of
modern politics: the "war on drugs" that treats cannabis and heroin as two
sides of the same coin.