MPs TO PRESS FOR INQUIRY INTO CANNABIS

LABOUR MPs are putting renewed pressure on Jack Straw to set up an inquiry
into the legalisation of cannabis.

While he insisted yesterday that changing the law was not on the
Government's agenda, backbench MPs said they planned to table a Commons
motion to test support for a Royal Commission to look into the question as
soon as Parliament resumed this month.

Paul Flynn, the Left-wing Labour MP for Newport West, predicted that at
least 30 colleagues would support the call - and said this would understate
the true level of support since some of those who signed a similar motion
halfway through the last parliament were now ministers.

His move came as it emerged that the Mirror had a tape recording of the
conversation between its reporter, Dawn Alford, and William Straw, the Home
Secretary's 17-year-old son, in which Miss Alford is claimed to have
discussed the purchase of cannabis from him.

Allies of the Home Secretary questioned why the paper had not divulged the
existence of the tape, made its contents public, or passed it to police,
when there was a continuing investigation into the alleged drug deal.

Labour MPs are concerned that the Mirror set out to "entrap" Mr Straw's
son, using subterfuge and deceit - although the Home Secretary has
expressed gratitude for the way the paper subsequently handled the affair.
Piers Morgan, editor of the Mirror, refused to comment yesterday on the
existence of the tape, saying that to do so would involve a discussion of
evidence while the investigation was "on-going".

Mr Straw spent much of yesterday with his family, leaving his home in
Lambeth, south London, shortly before lunchtime with his wife Alice and
William. Earlier, he made clear in a radio interview that the Government
did not expect to shift from opposing decriminalisation of cannabis.

He held open the possibility that a different view might be taken if
campaigners for legalisation could prove otherwise. But failing this, he
said, "there has been no evidence whatsoever to undermine the scientific
evidence that this is a potentially dangerous drug and should not be
legalised".