CALL FOR SWEEPING REFORM OF DRUGS LAW

Jail terms for hard drugs users should be cut and abolished altogether
for users of Ecstasy, LSD and cannabis, according to a review of drug
laws published yesterday.

The study makes the recommendations after concluding that there is "no
evidence" that the present penalties deter traffickers or prevent the
supply of drugs.

The most controversial recommendation of the two-year inquiry into the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is for reduced jail terms for possession of
cocaine and heroin. It also calls for changes in the classification of
Ecstasy, LSD and cannabis.

Viscountess Runciman of Doxford, chairman of the inquiry by the Police
Foundation, said: "We have concluded that the most dangerous message
of all is that all drugs are equally dangerous.

"When young people know that the advice they are being given is either
exaggerated or untrue, there is a real risk they will discount
everything they are told about the most hazardous drugs, including
heroin and cocaine.

"Imprisonment is not a proportionate response to the vast majority of
possession offences. A prison sentence should be abolished as a
penalty for most possession offences."

The report recommends that prison terms be cut for people caught using
Class A drugs, including heroin and cocaine, from seven years to one.
Even then, it should be considered only after treatment and community
punishment have failed. Ecstasy and LSD should be downgraded from
Class A to Class B and penalties for possession cut from five years to
a UKP1,000 fine.

Cannabis should also be downgraded from Class B to Class C and
prosecutions carried out only for persistent offending with a maximum
fine of UKP500. The report recommended that people found growing
cannabis for personal use should also receive a fixed penalty fine.

In most cases cannabis possession would be treated with a police
caution, warning or fixed penalty fine. It should no longer be an
arrestable offence, although a senior police officer on the inquiry
team gave a warning of the consequences. Dennis O'Connor, Chief
Constable of Surrey, said that without the power to arrest, officers
would not be able to question suspects about their supplies. He did
not attend the report's launch.

John Hamilton, Chief Constable of Fife, also on the inquiry, shared
those fears.

While lowering punishments for individual possession of drugs,
however, it called for greater attention to drug suppliers and
traffickers.It recommended a new offence of drug dealing, in which the
courts would take into account a pattern of illicit dealing. Under the
change, the person would be able to use the defence that they were
supplying a small social group, such as friends or family, in answer
to a charge of supplying Class B or Class C drugs.

The inquiry calls for the creation of a National Confiscation Agency
to seize the assets of drug dealers. It said that the present
arrangements - under which courts order seizures - were
ineffective.

In 1997 the amount ordered to be confiscated was UKP5.6 million, one
fifth of the amount confiscated in 1994. The average confiscation
order was for UKP3,400, the lowest yet. The report outlines the scale
of the drug problem in Britain, showing that between 1973 and 1996 the
number of new and renotified addicts increased more than 1,000 per
cent, from 3,022 to 43,372.

It said that local studies estimated that the total number of addicts
in Britain in the late 1990s was between 100,000 and 200,000.

The great majority of people dealt with under the Act were accused of
possessing illegal drugs and cannabis dominated those offences.

The latest Home Office British Crime Survey estimates that 2.5 million
people aged 16 to 29 took cannabis in 1997.

In an attempt to deal with the problem of drug use by young people,
the report says that nightclubs should provide first aid treatment and
educational material about the dangers.

A Mori poll for the report involving 1,645 people aged 16 to 59 found
that 90 per cent judged heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy to be very or
fairly harmful. Only one third thought cannabis to be as harmful as
heroin and or cocaine. Half of all adults felt that the law should be
changed so that cannabis use was no longer illegal. Only 0.5 per cent
of people thought targeting cannabis users should be a police priority.