STRAW RELAXES LAW ON CANNABIS POSSESSION

The Government moved yesterday to relax the laws on the use of cannabis by
pledging to remove the "stigma" attached to hundreds of thousands of people
caught in possession of the drug.

In an important move towards liberalisation of the law, the Home Office
said people cautioned for having cannabis would no longer have to declare
their offence to employers or immigration officials as their offences would
be immediately treated as "spent".

In another concession to liberalisation, the Home Office said it was
prepared to consider new sentencing guidelines to ensure that people found
guilty of supplying drugs to friends were not treated by the courts as
"professional dealers".

The proposal, which will affect hundreds of thousands of people, formed
part of a largely hostile government response to an independent report by
the Police Foundation calling for reform of Britain's drugs laws. Although
the Government rejected recommendations to lower the drug classification of
cannabis, ecstasy and LSD, its willingness to change the law on cautioning
was welcomed by drugs advice groups.

Mike Goodman, director of Release, said: "This has been a big problem. We
have had cases where people have said they have not got a criminal record
but employers have done a police search and the caution has come up.

"Cautions were never intended to have the same status as criminal
convictions but the reality is that people have to declare them because of
the way questions for job interviews and visa applications are framed."

In its response to the Police Foundation report, the Home Office said: "The
Government have accepted that there is a ... problem relating to the stigma
attached to possessing a caution; for example when asked to confirm the
existence of a criminal record by a prospective employer. We have consulted
on proposals to apply the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act
1974 to cautions on the basis that they should become spent immediately."

The Home Office said itwas seeking a "suitable legislative vehicle" to
introduce the change.

More than 89,000 people were convicted of possessing cannabis in 1998, the
most recent year for which figures are available. Of these, 54 per cent
were given a caution at the discretion of the arresting police officer.

In 1999, 266,000 people received cautions for a variety of criminal
offences. Under the current system, cautions remain on the police national
computer for five years and can be used by the courts in sentencing for
further offences for three years.

The proposed changes would still allow the courts to consider previous
cautions when sentencing but would remove the obligation on individuals to
declare the offences to employers and officials.

People seeking a career in the law or in the police or prison services will
still be required to declare cautions, although they will not automatically
be barred from employment.

Viscountess Runciman of Doxford, lead author of the Police Foundation
report, said she was pleased the Government had recognised the importance
of removing the stigma from cannabis cautions, but was "disappointed" that
ministers had rejected most of its 81 recommendations, including the
removal of custodial sentences for cannabis, ecstasy and LSD possession.