TORY PRESS OPEN TO REFORM ON CANNABIS

LONDON (Reuters) - Efforts to soften Britain's cannabis drug laws won
unexpected backing from conservative commentators Thursday who supported an
experiment in legalization.

The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail newspapers, both bastions of
conservative opinion in Britain, have tentatively backed some findings of a
report recommending an easing up on users of "soft" drugs like Ecstasy and
cannabis.

"The first thing to do is to have a proper public debate. The second thing
to do, we tentatively suggest, is to experiment with legalization the Daily
Telegraph said in an editorial.

"Surely the truly conservative answer to the problem is to find ways of
acclimatizing drugs to bourgeois society rather than yelling vainly into
the wind."

The independent inquiry by the Police Foundation - a charity partly funded
by the Home Office - argued that Britain should crack down on organized
dealers but ease penalties for possession of soft drugs.

Cannabis possession can be punished by up to seven years in Britain but
long sentences are rarely imposed.

The Police Foundation report, which argued that current laws have only a
limited success in deterring drug use and that too much police time is
wasted on soft drugs, received a cool response from the government.

The Home Office said that although Ecstasy remains the drug of choice for
clubbers and that cannabis use is widespread, the government will not
soften its stance.

But the Daily Mail welcomed a widening of a debate on current drug laws.

"We believe that all the arguments on both sides merit hysteria-free and
rational examination," the paper said in an editorial Wednesday.

"The Police Foundation deserves praise for beginning what could and should
be a mature and serious national debate," it said.

British attitudes toward soft drugs, especially cannabis, have relaxed
considerably. A MORI poll published last year found that 80 percent of
Britons supported a softening of cannabis laws while only 17 percent
believed the drug should remain illegal.

In January, British cabinet minister Mo Mowlam, the head of the Labor
government's anti-drug campaign, admitted to smoking marijuana as a
student. Other cabinet ministers have also acknowledged using cannabis.

"Attitudes toward cannabis are definitely changing in this country," Alun
Buffry, spokesman for the Legalize Cannabis Alliance, a British political
party, told Reuters

"We don't usually agree with the Telegraph, but we do endorse a vigorous
and healthy debate on drugs. That is where we agree."