IRISH PARTIES WON'T FOLLOW KENNEDY'S LEAD ON DRUGS

There is no political will here for a reappraisal of the government's fight
against drugs, says Pat Brosnan

POLITICAL parties in this country will not be taking a leaf out of the book
of new Liberal Democrats leader Charles Kennedy who wants a national
reappraisal of the UK's anti drug fight.

There is no political will here to establish a similar examination of the
efficacy of how the Government and the professional agencies have coped, and
are coping, with the problem.

While the Taoiseach is chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Drugs, a
plethora of government departments here are involved in the issue in one way
or another. They include the departments of Health, Justice, Education, as
well as Tourism and Sport.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said they were not in favour of
legalising any form of drug and there was no move to do so.

It was the first major policy statement that Mr Kennedy made since he was
elected only last week to take over leadership of the Liberal Democrats from
Paddy Ashdown.

It came hardly a month after the Labour Government ministers backed Tony
Blair and Home Secretary Jack Straw in utterly rejecting calls to
decriminalise cannabis for medical purposes.

Earlier this year as many as 102 MPs, including eight Tories, signed a
Commons motion calling for the decriminalisation of cannabis for medical
purposes.

What Charles Kennedy wants is a "mature and adult" debate on drugs
generally, not just cannabis. He is not personally backing
decriminalisation, even for people suffering pain from arthritis or Multiple
Sclerosis, never mind legalisation.

He wants a comprehensive look at anti drugs education, enforcement policies,
sentencing and the views of experts, including senior police officers, some
of whom believe the war against drugs has been lost. "There is hardly a
family in the land that's not worried about the drugs problem," said Mr
Kennedy.

Although his party backed a royal commission on drugs policy and strategy as
far back as the mid-Nineties it has stood aloof from it since, largely
because of Paddy Ashdown and other senior party colleagues who had a more
cautious approach to the issue.

Charles Kennedy's move for a royal commission on drugs has been given the
backing of the charity, Release, which supports the legalisation of
cannabis. It's director, Mike Goodman, said Mr Kennedy's intervention was an
enormous moment in the case for changing the drug laws.

The most recent response in this country was the announcement by the
Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, of the imminent setting up of a Drug
Court pilot scheme. This system will be a radical new direction for the
management of drug offenders, and will involve court supervised treatment
programmes for less serious drugs related offences.

Based on an American model, it is expected to have a profound affect over
time on how society deals with less serious non violent drug offences.

However, the Criminal Justice Act, 1999, enacted earlier this year, provided
for minimum 10 year penalties for drug traffickers. It created a new offence
of intimidation of witnesses or jurors etc., which carries a 10 year
penalty, and another offence with up to five years in prison for attempting
to track down witnesses re-located under the Witness Protection Scheme.

Also, anybody found in possession of drugs with a street value of pounds
10,000 or more will face 10 years in jail on conviction. And that's
mandatory.

Last week, junior Minister at the Department of Tourism and Sport, Chris
Flood, announced a pounds 15 million initiative for dealing with drugs
problems on a local basis.

As far as the Labour Party is concerned, they are not in favour of
decriminalising drugs and had not looked at that question in any depth
whatsoever. However, if a national forum was established to open up the
entire debate on drugs, they would make a contribution to it.

Currently, the party's policy on the subject is the same as was presented in
their last election manifesto. Among other things, that advocated a
comprehensive family information and support network and a continuing
Government sponsored media campaign to dispel the perception that drugs can
be safely used recreationally.

Labour also emphasised the need to foster the role of estate management as a
community based response, reversing vigilante type activity.

The manifesto also underlined the need for community based clinics, more
detoxification beds and better follow up services.

Fine Gael's Spokesman on Justice Jim Higgins has welcomed the pounds 15
million drugs initiative to deal with "drug infested" areas but is critical
of the fact that the Drug Courts have still not been set up. The party in
government established the very effective Criminal Assets Bureau, as well as
the Garda National Drugs Unit, and gave local authorities more powers to
evict drug dealers from estates.

It still wants to see local communities advanced through enhancing
partnership with the State agencies, and the provision of additional
treatment facilities. Rehabilitation and job opportunities for addicts who
have successfully completed treatment programmes, are also part of their
current policy.