Voice of the People

SOMETHING positive must come out of the saga of Jack Straw and his son
William's involvement with drugs.

That should be the decriminalisation of cannabis, or at the very least a
Royal Commission to consider it.

Tomorrow Keith Hallawell, currently Chief Constable of West Yorkshire,
begins a new job as UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator.

He has already said his priority is to target heroin dealers who
deliberateley lure young people into addiction by selling it to them
cheaply. But he isn't getting any extra money to take them on.

At the moment 85 per cent of all drugs arrests are for cannabis. Imagine
how much Mr Hallawell could achieve if these resources were targeted
towards heroin dealers instead. And if cannabis were to be made legal and
its supply controlled and taxed, it would be the Government and not the
criminal classes profiting from its sale.

Clearly, decriminalising cannabis would have to be done in stages starting
with allowing the prescription of cannabis for people with certain medical
conditions which the British Medical Association has already called for.

We know Mr Straw is a man of principle and changing his mind on
decriminalisation will not come easy.

But to change his mind, at least to allow a proper debate within a Royal
Commission, would not be weakness.