INQUIRY PUTS ALCOHOL ON A PAR WITH HEROIN AND COCAINE

The Police Foundation report recognises that the existing laws and
penalties for possession of cannabis cause more harm than they
prevent, writes Alan Travis.

The report says the recommendations to remove the threat of prison for
cannabis users by making it a class C rather than a class B drug, and
to reclassify Ecstasy and LSD from class A to class B would create a
more accurate "hierarchy of harm" and enhance the law's
credibility.

The inquiry chairwoman, Lady Runciman, said: "We conclude that the
most dangerous message of all is the message that all drugs are
equally dangerous. When young people know from their own experience
that part of the message is either exaggerated or untrue, there is a
serious risk that they will discount all of the rest . . . Recent
evidence indicates there is a pressing need to refocus attention on
the pre-eminent harm of heroin and cocaine."

Cannabis: The report says that long-term use can cause physical and
psychological harm, and intoxication can cause danger to others, but it is
less harmful than alcohol and tobacco. (It suggests that if alcohol were a
classified drug it would be class A, with cocaine, heroin and methadone;
and tobacco would be class B, with amphetamines, barbiturates and codeine.)
The law on cannabis bore more heavily on young people from minority
communities in the inner cities, criminalised them to the detriment of
their long-term future, and damaged police relations with the community.

The foundation proposes that the threat of imprisonment for cannabis
possession should be replaced by a system of informal warnings,
statutory cautions and fixed fines, with a maximum of A3500 for
persistent offenders. Fines should carry no criminal record. The main
effect of reclassifying cannabis as a class C drug would be to remove
the police power of arrest for possession, although police would
retain the power to stop and search for drugs. The inquiry says that
people who grow small amounts of cannabis for their own use should be
fined or cautioned as for possession, and no longer treated as
traffickers. It proposes relaxing the law on allowing premises to be
used for smoking cannabis, and the regulations on the therapeutic use
of the drug for medical purposes. But it stops short of backing the
creation of Dutch-style coffee shops where cannabis can be bought.

Ecstasy and LSD: After taking advice from the Royal College of
Psychiatrists about the relative harm of controlled drugs, the inquiry
wants to regrade these drugs. It says they are considerably less
dangerous than heroin and other opiates or cocaine. There are fewer
than 10 Ecstasy-related deaths a year, compared with 2,100 deaths from
other illegal drugs.

Nor are Ecstasy and LSD as addictive as other class A drugs. The
report says that classifying them with heroin and cocaine can give the
message to ecstasy users that other class A drugs will cause them few
ill effects.

Dealing: The report urges much tougher sanctions on the suppliers of all
illegal drugs. It says that despite large increases in seizures there is no
evidence that drugs have become harder to obtain or more expensive.

It advocates the creation of a new offence of dealing, which would
allow the courts to sentence for persistent dealing in drugs rather
than an isolated act of supply. An agency would be set up to seize the
drug-related assets of convicted traffickers.

New sentencing guidelines would be needed to ensure the courts take
into account aggravating factors such as involvement in an organised
criminal group, use of violence or guns, supplying drugs to children,
or using them in dealing. It proposes harsh penalties for trafficking
in class A drugs (20 years' imprisonment compared with the current
15-year maximum) and no change in the 14-year maximum for dealing
class B, but the maximum for class C drugs should be raised from five
to seven years.