DON'T GO SOFT ON POT PUSHERS, URGES HAGUE

CANNABIS dealers caught close to schools face automatic jail sentences under
a crackdown on soft drugs promised by William Hague yesterday.

The Tory leader said a Conservative government would adopt a zero tolerance'
policy towards pushers targeting schoolchildren.

Accusing Labour of 'hauling up the white flag' in the war on the cannabis
culture. Mr Hague pledged to establish special exclusion zones around
schools. The proposal is a huge leap from current practice, which usually
results in a police caution for anyone found in possession of the drug.

If implemented, it would dramatically swell the prison population and force
the police to divert massive resources into the anti-drugs war, which now
concentrates on heroin and cocaine.

Mr Hague insisted harsh action was needed to cut the link between drugs and
crime, and unveiled a package of measures to achieve this.

These include giving courts power to ban convicted drug dealers and users
from associating with children and automatic seven-year jail terms for a
third offence in dealing in soft drugs - or life for a second conviction
involving hard drugs.

Head teachers and school governors would me given powers to expel pupils who
push drugs and changes would be made to guidelines enabling teachers to warn
pupils about the harmful effects of drugs. Mr Hague launched his latest
policy package as he sought to seize the initiative in the drugs war days
after the Government gave the impression it had come to accept the spread of
cannabis use.

At the weekend, drugs 'czar' Keith Hellawell appeared to hint that police
could turn a blind eye to soft drugs - concentrating their resources on
tackling heroin and cocaine.

Within hours, Cabinet co-ordinator Mo Mowlam backed him and refused to
clearly rule out the decriminalisation of cannabis, while New Scotland Yard
chief Sir John Stevens signalled that cannabis law enforcement was not a
priority for the Metropolitan Police.

Mr Hague said: "The Government is sending out mixed, confused and weak
signals on drugs. For ministers to imply that some laws are just not worth
enforcing is to throw in the towel."

He said a Conservative government 'would move in the opposite direction ...
not more tolerance of drugs, but less.'

Mr Hague's comments follow a Home Office study showing 60 per cent of
14-year-olds and 80 per cent of 16-year-olds had been in situations where
drugs were available."

More than a quarter of 14-year-olds had tried cannabis. Embarrassingly for
the Tories, one of their recently-selected Parliamentary candidates
suggested the possible legalisation of cannabis should not be ruled out.

Former Army colonel Patrick mercer, who was adopted to contest Newark in
Nottinghamshire at the next election, recently told his local paper he
wanted a review of the medical uses of cannabis and questioned the link
between soft and hard drugs.

"There are positive sides to soft drugs - I emphasise not hard drugs - and
we should accept the benefits rather than enforce a rigid ban," he said.

Mr Hellawell yesterday dismissed reports that the Government was going soft
on cannabis, insisting official strategy remains to cut the use and
availability of both hard and soft drugs among children.

He added: "The idea that we are soft on cannabis or changing policy is
nonsense. I don't support decriminalisation or the depenalisation of
cannabis."