LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuter) The British government on Sunday dismissed calls
for cannabis to be made legal and said a national newspaper which supported
changing the law was irresponsible.

Home Secretary Jack Straw was reacting to calls by the Independent on Sunday
newspaper, backed by former Beatle Paul McCartney and entrepreneur Richard
Branson, for him to repeal a 69yearold law which outlaws the drug.

``There is a profoundly pessimistic assumption behind what the Independent on
Sunday says and that is that we are losing the war on drugs. It's not true,''
Straw told independent television.

``What I regard as so irresponsible about those who say we should
decriminalise possession of small amounts of cannabis is this one thing
which would follow, as night follows day, is that consumption would shoot
up.''

The newspaper devoted more than a page to an examination of the case for
decriminalisation, with endorsements for the idea from senior doctors and
former highranking policemen as well as McCartney and Branson.

``If alcohol is a tiger, then cannabis is merely a mouse,'' wrote editor
Rosie Boycott. ``No one has ever been disfigured by a joint.''

More than 300 people who joined a demonstration in London's Hyde Park on
Sunday to call for cannabis to be made legal were handed hash cakes and
cannabis resin as police looked on.

The Independent on Sunday said police were increasingly cautioning people
found in possession of cannabis rather than prosecuting them. Cautions were
given in 47 percent of cases in 1992 against one percent in 1981, it said.

Meanwhile researchers at Exeter University in western England issued details
of a survey which they said showed that three in 10 British schoolchildren
aged 1415 had tried cannabis at least once.