LAW THAT WAS TOO TOUGH PRODUCED MORE DRUG USE, BRITISH STUDY SAYS

LONDON - The 1960s were lively and creative years in Britain, which
exported cultural phenomena that caught on around the world - the Beatles,
the miniskirt, etc.

But the freewheeling decade also had its dark side: an explosion in drug
use that, by 1971 meant Britain had nearly 3,000 known drug addicts.

The 1971 government report on drug use led to the Misuse of Drugs Act - one
of the toughest drug laws in Western Europe, triggering an American-style
war on drugs.

The result? Over the three decades since the law was passed, drug offenses
have risen tenfold. The number of known addicts now tops 43,000.

To figure out why the law failed to meet its goals, the national Police
Foundation set up a blue-ribbon commission of police officers, academics
and politicians to conduct a two-year study of British drug policy.A0 The
group's report, "Drugs and the Law," came out this week and concluded that
the 1971 law is actually too tough, at least on such "soft" drugs as
marijuana, LSD and ecstasy.

"The present law," the commission concluded, "produces more harm than it
prevents."

Most drug crimes in Britain involve marijuana - about 80,000 of the 115,000
drug cases each year.

But polls show that most Britons consider marijuana - or "cannabis," as it
is known here - less dangerous than tobacco.

The tough stance on marijuana, therefore, has made people distrust drug
laws in general because it focuses on a drug they don't think is dangerous,
thus undermining "credibility, respect for law and the police, and accurate
education messages," the study says.

The commission concluded that Britain should move away from the U.S. model
of tougher enforcement and longer prison sentences and move instead in the
direction of other democracies in Western Europe, where possession of many
drugs and hallucinogens has been decriminalized. In most of Western Europe,
use of marijuana or LSD draws a fine, like a parking ticket.

"Depenalizing cannabis in Britain would reflect practice in Spain, Italy,
Portugal, much of Scandinavia, most German [states] ... and Holland," said
Simon Jenkins, a columnist for the Times of London and a member of the
commission.

Jenkins added that all of those countries, "have lower consumption rates
than Britain."

The commission also said police should focus their efforts on people who
use and sell cocaine and heroin, the most dangerous drugs. It said that
mere possession of marijuana, ecstasy, LSD, barbiturates and amphetamines
no longer should draw a jail term.

About 90 percent of the drug convictions here each year are for possession,
the report said, because users generally are easier to catch than traffickers.

The commission also compared two legal substances, alcohol and tobacco,
against a range of illegal drugs in terms of health risks, and concluded
that both alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than marijuana.

For all the work that went into the study, however, it may turn out to be
just another blue-ribbon report that is shelved.

British Home Secretary Jack Straw said he did not agree that reducing
penalties for possession would alleviate the nation's drug problem. The
best way to fight drug use, Straw said, is to "maintain firm controls."

He added that he had "no intention" of changing the 1971 law.