LABOUR RESISTS CALL FOR REVIEW OF DRUGS LAWS

THE Government ruled out any moves towards decriminalising cannabis
yesterday despite pressure from new MPs for an official review of the
anti-drugs laws.

Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, turned down cross-party calls for a Royal
Commission and warned that slackening the existing legislation on soft
drugs would lead to a huge increase in consumption. His comments came after
a survey of the 1997 intake at Westminster disclosed that one in five
respondents had sampled illegal drugs and a majority thought that the
present legal restrictions on their use were too harsh.

However, only one of the MPs in the younger parliamentary generation broke
ranks to waive his anonymity and admit smoking cannabis in the past, and he
is a Conservative. David Prior, son of the former Cabinet minister Lord
Prior and MP for Norfolk North, said: "I honestly could not live with
myself and talk about drugs if I did not admit to people I have taken them."

The survey conducted anonymously for LWT's Dimbleby programme found that
two-thirds of those questioned believed that the issue should be
investigated by a Royal Commission.

But Mr Straw said evidence from countries that had decriminalised cannabis,
such as the Netherlands and Alaska, showed drug consumption increased while
crime worsened. He told Radio 4's World This Weekend: "Governments set up
Royal Commissions when they are uncertain what to do about something. We
are not uncertain about this."

In recent years the Liberal Democrats have called for a Royal Commission
into drug use to take the issue out of the political arena. An all-party
committee of the House of Lords has just started a scientific investigation
into the case for decriminalising cannabis and another independent inquiry
is being conducted by the Police Foundation.

Mr Prior, 43, who backs the idea of a Royal Commission, said he had an open
mind on the decriminalisation of cannabis and would like to know more about
the medical effects of using soft drugs. He accused fellow politicians of
adopting a hypocritical attitude towards drugs when huge numbers of
"completely conventional" people like himself were routinely exposed to
them.

He wrote in the Independent on Sunday: "I associate my experience with
drugs (soft ones) not with Mick Jagger or Aldous Huxley but with passing my
law degree and working in a bank. You can wear a pinstripe suit and be
utterly conventional and still roll a joint. And yes, I did inhale. But
that was a long time ago. I stopped some time in my late 20s and took up
alcohol instead."

A questionnaire was sent to the 243 new MPs who entered Parliament at the
general election last May. Of the 81 who responded, 51 per cent said they
believed the current laws on cannabis were "too harsh", while 65 per cent
backed a Royal Commission. Some MPs highlighted the way the current law was
unevenly applied, and others called for the legalisation of soft drugs for
medicinal purposes.