PRESSURE FOR DRUGS U-TURN

Home Secretary Jack Straw was today urged by one of his own backbenchers to
'Go Dutch' and legalise cannabis just hours after his son William was
cautioned by police for selling drugs.

Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West and vice-chairman of the Commons
Drugs Misuse group, applauded the police's decision not to prosecute the
17-year-old after he admitted supplying cannabis to an undercover reporter.

He said the teenager had had a 'lucky escape' and urged his father to adopt
an 'intelligent' drugs policy like Holland's, where cannabis has been
decriminalised.

Mr Flynn told the Home Secretary: "It was right not tom prosecute Jack
Straw's son, although the lives of other youngstesr have been wrecked for
similar and lesser offences.

"Many have lost jobs, been expelled from schools and jailed for possession
or dealing."

The backbencher said: "The Home Secretary should celebrate his lucky escape
by visiting Holland and learning from a successful anti-drugs policy.

"Twenty years of cannabis decriminalisation there has cut all drugs use.
No police, courts or prison time is wasted chasing cannabis users."

Heroin abuse in Holland, Mr Flynn argued, had declined every year to a
third of Britain's use and claimed: "Young people are not moving from
cannabis to hard drugs."

He said there had been no Dutch ecstasy or glue sniffing deaths.

The MP visited the Amsterdam last week and advised Mr Straw to follow suit.