TIME FOR A FRESH LOOK AT DRUGS

THE Home Secretary has emerged largely unscathed from his exposure - albeit
voluntary - as the Cabinet minister whose son is involved in the possible
criminal action of supplying cannabis. Although there might well be many
parents who might jib at turning in their offspring to the police, there
can be little doubt that as a senior member of the Cabinet and the person
primarily responsible for its policies on law and order, the Home Secretary
acted responsibly and correctly. There has been nothing in the way he has
behaved over this episode to suggest that Mr Straw should feel compelled to
even consider resignation. He rightly retains the Prime Minister's
confidence and, thus far at any rate, the public's likewise.

That he is determined not to be deflected from his previously held views on
the subject of drugs and how the law is enforced in relation to them is
completely understandable. Allowing personal tragedy to make public policy
may be no way to run a government but it might in this case offer us room
for sober re-assessment.

The persistently hard line emanting both from Mr Straw himself and from
nods and winks from the Home Office appear to suggest that toughness and
obduracy seem to be the limits of official thought on the effects of drugs
in society. What the case of the Home Secretary's son has thrown up, in
graphic detail, is that the use and abuse of drugs is a problem which
afflicts society at every level. Those who cling to the belief that this is
an issue affecting only the fringes and, as such, can be largely ignored
are becoming an ever smaller minority. Rightly so.

Every parent with teenage children knows the truth; drugs are an everyday
part of their lives. Whether we wish this to be the case or not is hardly
the point. It is a fact which we ignore at our - and their - peril. As a
society we really do need to re-assess all of our attitudes to the
situation. Just as the law, in England at any rate, has been proved to be a
ass in relation to its attempted prevention of the identity of both William
Straw and his father as those who were involved in this case, so it is in
danger of being ridiculed over drug use. Thousands of otherwise law-abiding
young people are being criminalised by society's current strictures over
drug use and the existing law is continually being challenged.

Later this week the Government's new drugs czar takes up his job.

Surely there is not a better time for the whole country to take a long and
mature look at what we are asking him to do and the laws we expect him to
implement. The case for a Royal Commission on drug use and abuse and the
laws relating to it is becoming overwhelming. We need to re-assess our
attitude towards the entire problem and to do so free from preconceived
notions.

The fact of establishing such a Royal Commission does not necessarily mean
- - as critics of the idea might suggest - that the Government approves of
the legalisation or de-criminalisation of this or that drug. What it would
mean, however, is that as a society we are at least prepared to consider
maturely and in possession of all the facts whether our existing policies
are correct and, more importantly, that they are relevant in protecting the
health and welfare of those currently deemed to be most at risk from them -
our young people.

Mr Straw's experiences with his son are ones which are shared by countless
other parents throughout the country. He may well have been right in the
responsible actions he has taken up to now but it is on what he does in the
future that he will be ultimately judged. If ordering a Royal Commission is
too painful a duty for him to contemplate, then Mr Blair should take the
decision for him.