STRAW WARNS OF PERILS OF LEGALISING CANNABIS

JACK STRAW spoke yesterday of the dangers of decriminalising cannabis and
said the move would lead to a big increase in consumption in England and
Wales.

The Home Secretary, whose son William is expected to be told this week
whether he is to be prosecuted for allegedly selling the drug, reiterated
his strong belief that it should remain illegal.

He said: "We have to get across to young people that it's not because
ageing wrinklies have tried to stop people having fun. It's because
scientific evidence is that these [so-called soft drugs] are potentially
very dangerous."

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

In Alaska, a period in which marijuana was legalised led to a doubling in
the rate of use among teenagers until voters passed a measure to
recriminalise the drug. In 1975, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that
possession of up to 4oz of marijuana at home for personal use was protected
by the privacy rights in the state's constitution. Fifteen years later,
citizens sponsored an anti-drug referendum to reverse the ruling. It passed
by a margin of 55 per cent to 45 per cent, making possession of small
amounts of marijuana punishable by up to three months in prison and a fine
of $1,000 (#600).

At least two American studies have found that marijuana use increases among
youths if drugs are easier to obtain. Jill Jones, who began her research
favouring legalisation, concluded in her history of drug abuse in America
that making illegal drugs more available and acceptable tended only to
exacerbate the problem.

A University of Michigan study, Monitoring the Future, found that marijuana
use rose among 18-years-olds within a year of them perceiving that the risk
of being caught had decreased. Greater ease of obtaining marijuana at
ever-younger ages contributed to an increase of 150 per cent among
13-year-olds.

In Europe, drug experts are divided as to how decriminalising cannabis
would influence consumption. Some believe there would be no impact, others
calculate that there would be only a short-term increase and sociologists
say that here would be a significant and lasting rise in soft-drug smokers.

The Munich Institute for Therapy Research claims that an increase in
soft-drug use would be inevitable. It says decriminalisation allows soft
drugs to assume a "normal" image and creates the likelihood that growth
patterns will follow the example of legal drugs such as alcohol and
tobacco. "In particular, young people can be expected to have a
disproportionately high increase in cannabis consumption, since it would be
even more difficult to control their access to soft drugs," it says.

The institute adds that decriminalisation leads to greater personal usage
by those who already smoke cannabis, wider availability for those who have
never tried the drug and the lowering of the threshold to hard-drug abuse.

Opinion surveys in Hamburg showed that about 14 per cent of heavy consumers
of soft drugs showed an interest in using heroin "once or twice". Only 2
per cent of non-drug users were curious about experimenting with it.

Social policy experts in The Netherlands, the main country to practise
decriminalisation, have found that cannabis use has become relatively
widespread among sixth-formers, who can often be seen in coffee shops at
around 5pm having a smoke before doing their homework. There is also a
crossover between the tolerated sale of cannabis in coffee shops and the
availability of Ecstasy, which is illegal, but is regarded by much of
European youth as an acceptably "social" drug.

Cannabis rules in Europe:

Germany: tolerated in small quantities (about 10g) in some states.
Belgium: no decriminalisation but reform planned.
France: no decriminalisation but soft drug possession usually results only
in a warning.
Holland: 30g cannabis and 1g heroin or cocaine tolerated.
Italy and Sweden: no decriminalisation.