LONDON POTHEADS SMELL FREEDOM

LONDON -- There was no mistaking the aroma wafting over the market stalls
Monday in the south London community of Brixton. It was the odour of
marijuana, accompanied by the heady whiff of freedom.

This teeming, underprivileged corner of London, notorious as a haven for
drugs and crime, has been chosen to pilot a small significant experiment
that could open the door to the decriminalization of marijuana in Britain.

Starting Monday, and for the next six months, no one in the Brixton area
caught in possession of the drug will be prosecuted, local police have
announced.

"Man, it's great," said Roger, 19, who refused to give his full name, as he
exhaled a stream of aromatic smoke over the heads of local shoppers.

"I heard it on the radio this morning, that now you can smoke where you
like and the police can't do (anything) about it.

"It means we can relax, we don't have to hide indoors."

The new policy is not quite that relaxed. Those found in possession of
small amounts will have their drugs confiscated and be issued a warning.But
there will be no criminal record and police no longer will stop and search
suspects, effectively making Brixton the first place in Britain where
people can use marijuana without fear of being caught.

For many residents, that will make little difference. Drug dealers loiter
openly among the stalls selling dried fish, plantain and reggae music to
the largely Caribbean local population. Drug users travel to Brixton from
all over London to stock up on supplies.

"Brixton has always had the bohemian reputation anyway," said Barry Klieff,
a realtor optimistic about the implications for housing prices in the area.

"If anything, this will give it a star appeal. It's only cannabis, loads
of people smoke it, all over London, and most of them are middle-class people."

But for Britain, the implications of what is happening in Brixton could be
far more profound.

The initiative was launched by local police with little fanfare and barely
any comment from the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who
campaigned on a platform of "zero tolerance" toward drugs when first
elected in 1997, but has fallen silent on the issue now the police are
preparing to show a small amount of tolerance.

The government insists there are no plans to decriminalize marijuana. The
Brixton experiment has been dismissed simply as a local initiative in an
area battling to contain a far bigger problem with crack cocaine and heroin.