DECRIMINALISE DRUGS, COPS TOLD

DECRIMINALISATION of heroin and cocaine is the only way to prise
Camden from the clutches of drug-barons and alleviate the slavery of
addicts, civic leaders told the police on Monday night.

At the Town Hall Mark Heath, Camden's top policeman, and Councillor
Ben Rawlings, the council's community safety chief, heard a series of
respected figures from the Community and Police Consultative Group
call for an end to the prohibition of class A drugs.

"In my mind it was a mistake to hand over the distribution of hard
drugs to hard criminals," said Huntley Spence, a former Conservative
councillor.

Mick Farrant, an independent custody visitor, said: "We've found over
many years that prohibition doesn't work. It isn't addicts that cause
anti-social behaviour and crime, it's the misuse of drugs that causes
anti-social behaviour and crime."

Joe Weir, chair of the Covent Garden Community Association, added: "I
think prohibition has proved to be very ill-advised. I don't think the
word legalise should be used - it should be decriminalised."

The tide of feeling towards liberalisation was bitterly opposed,
however, by former Belsize councillor Johnny Bucknell and Roy Walker,
chair of the Camden safer neighbourhood panel.

Mr Bucknell added: "If you have a clear zero tolerance message to
these kids you might steer them clear."