HARD LINE STAYS ON SOFT DRUGS

PROPOSALS by an independent think-tank to relax Britain's drugs laws were
given short shrift by the Government last night.

Some drugs reform campaigners welcomed the recommendations as a "breath of
fresh air" and called for further informed debate: others were highly
critical.

Mr Alistair Ramsay, director of Scotland Against Drugs, condemned the
report as sending out a "very confusing and very wrong" message to
Scotland's youth.

A Glasgow drugs campaigner, Mrs Maxi Richards, said: "To say let's make it
even easier to get these drugs, or promote them as safer by bringing them
down a grade or two, is just madness. We don't want short cuts like this.
We need to deal with the drugs problem, not license it."

The report, compiled to advise the Government on possible reforms to the
1971 drug law, recommended that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD be downgraded to
lower classes of drugs to reflect better the risk of those substances.

It called for jail terms for hard drug users to be slashed and scrapped
altogether for softer drugs.

The inquiry, set up by the research charity, the Police Foundation, also
proposed a new offence aimed at persistent drug dealers and called for
greater confiscation of assets from traffickers.

But the Home Office and Government drug czar Keith Hellawell said they had
no plans to accept proposals to downgrade the seriousness of the illegal
drugs.

The only Scottish member of the Police Foundation inquiry team, Chief
Constable John Hamilton of Fife Constabulary, said the inquiry had afforded
a long-overdue opportunity for an open and frank debate into 30-year-old
legislation.

The inquiry committee had concluded that the present law on cannabis
produced more harm than it prevented. Mr Hamilton said it had criminalised
many otherwise law-abiding young people.

He added: "We believe we are moving with the grain of consent, especially
with regard to cannabis, and our proposed changes are legally sound. They
also bring the law into line with public opinion and its most loyal ally,
common sense."

Police associations in England and Wales expressed concern, despite the
presence of some of the country's most senior police officers on the
inquiry panel. The Scottish Police Federation and the Association of Chief
Police Officers of Scotland said they would study the report fully before
commenting.

While stopping short of suggesting legalisation, the inquiry called for
ecstasy and LSD to be reclassified as class B drugs instead of class A, a
category which includes heroin and cocaine. It also called for cannabis to
be downgraded from class B to C.

The report said people caught in possession of class B and C drugs should
not be sent to jail. Cannabis users should face prosecution only in
exceptional circumstances, with a maximum fine of UKP500, and normally
dealt with by way of informal warnings or fixed penalty fines.

People caught using class B drugs should face fines of up to UKP1000 rather
than a five-year jail term. Sentences for hard drug users including cocaine
and heroin should be cut from seven years to one.

The report, drawn up after a two-year inquiry with a team which also
included drug treatment experts, said that those who dealt near schools
should face more severe penalties. But it urged lenient treatment for
people growing cannabis plants for personal use and said the law should be
changed quickly to allow people to smoke the drug for medicinal purposes.

The Home Office said some proposals were "worth exploring" but rejected the
recommendations to reclassify LSD, cannabis and ecstasy. The Scottish
Executive said the area of the inquiry was a matter reserved to Westminster.

Mr Hellawell said the proposed penalties for cannabis use were nothing more
than a "slap on the wrist".

Criticism from anti-drug campaigners included Janet and Paul Betts, the
parents of teenager Leah Betts, who died after taking a single ecstasy
tablet. Mr Betts said the proposals would take Britain down the road
followed in Amsterdam where cannabis is smoked in coffee houses.

The Institute for Study of Drug Dependence and the Standing Conference on
Drug Abuse said it was a "breath of fresh air".

Mr Tommy Sheridan, MSP and leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, said:
"Over 100,000 people are unnecessarily criminalised each year by our drugs
law and over 500 end up in prison. Only a full legalisation of cannabis
will remove the threat from people's everyday lives."