STRAW REJECTS CALLS FOR DRUG LAW REVIEW

Jack Straw yesterday rejected calls for a Royal Commission to investigate
the legalisation of cannabis.

The Home Secretary, whose 17-year-old son William is accused of selling the
drug, said he could see 'no particular value' in such an inquiry.

Emphasising once again his opposition to legalising so-called 'soft drugs',
Mr Straw warned that consumption of cannabis would sour if legal sanctions
were dropped.

In response to calls for the law to permit its medicinal use, he said
researchers had yet to prove that cannabis had beneficial effects.

Mr Straw said that former heavy users of the drug were opposed to its
legalisation because of the effects they had suffered.

"We have to get acros to young people that its not because aging wrinklies
have tried to stop people having fun,' he told BBC interviewer Sir David
Frost. "It's because scientific evidence is that these are potentailly
very dangerous.". Mr Straw said he believed most Mps on both sides of the
House of Commons were against the legalisation of cannabis for general use.

He said one consequence of decriminalisation would be that the price of the
drug would fall. "many people would feel that they would use it anyway,
regardless of the consequences, so consumption would very significantly
increase." he warned.

Mr Straw revealed that 19 Government licences were held by people examining
any possible therapeutic effects of cannabis. But so far, he added,
researchers have not been able "to prove that there are real medicinal
benefits from cannabis."

Mr Straw said he had never tried cannabis, and when he was active in
university student politics, he had also opposed its legalisation.

He said he was aware that "quite a lot" of children at his son's
comprehensive school in Pimlico, Westminster, had used cannabis.