MINISTER ADMITS DRUG FUNDS ERROR

The government yesterday admitted that it had been underfunding drug
rehabilitation - a key plank of its anti-drugs strategy - as it prepared to
dismiss a call to reduce cannabis possession penalties.

The Home Office minister, Charles Clarke, said the government would not
support any relaxation in anti-drugs laws because it would send a political
signal leading to an increase in cannabis consumption.

A Police Foundation report, in part funded by the government, will this week
call for a relaxation of the cannabis laws by saying the maximum penalty for
possession should be cut from six months in jail to a UKP200 fine. The
report, drawn up with the advice of chief constables and Lady Runciman, the
former head of the government's drugs advisory service, will also call for a
downgrading of ecstasy from a Class A drug.

Mr Clarke, who has admitted to using cannabis in his youth, said: "I believe
the most likely impact of a relaxation of the law in any of these areas
would be to increase the consumption of those drugs, and I think that would
be bad for the people concerned and bad for society."

Sixty-five people had died from using ecstasy over the past 10 years, and he
ruled out an early move to allow MS sufferers to use cannabis. The Home
Office would await the results of clinical trials as long as a year away.
"We will only act on medical evidence," he told BBC's On the Record.

He did, however, concede that police forces were implementing the laws with
different vigour in different counties and called for greater uniformity.

He admitted it was a fair criticism that across the country there were not
enough rehabilitation facilities for Class A and B drugs users.

Ministers have been frequently criticised for failing to increase the number
of drug treatment centres. In some places it can take a year to get on to a
scheme.