CANNABIS LAWS A JOKE, BUT I'M NOT LAUGHING

The Law is an ass - this is the only conclusion now we know how police are
going to enforce the new, lenient laws on cannabis.

Are you going to be arrested for using cannabis in public places or not?

Well, yes if you are in Aberystwyth but no, if you are in Lincoln. You can
happily smoke pot in park in Durham but in Nottingham you could be arrested
for doing it in your living room.

In Manchester, almost anything could happen - the police will decide what
to do at the time so you might be able to indulge on one street but not
another. You could even be arrested one night for something you were
allowed to do the night before.

This is because the police have been left to work out for themselves how to
respond to cannabis becoming a class C drug instead of class B.

I don't see how we can be neutral. Yesterday it was reported that Harriet
Harman's son had been evicted from his student lodging for smoking
cannabis. I make no political point, it can happen to any family and to
children of MPs of any party. The point is we cannot help teenagers decide
what to do when the law is in chaos.

And even where we are used to new laws becoming a time-wasting,
counter-productive mess, this one threatens to become the most spectacular
mix-ups for years.

Retreat

What makes it more laughable is that David Blunkett's main justification
for downgrading cannabis was to save police time. The basic idea was so
long as you used the drug quitely, the police would not bother you.

But today the newspaper carries a Home Office advert warning CANNABIS IS
STILL ILLEGAL: THE POLICE CAN STILL ARREST YOU. Confused?

Now police, instead of being relieved of the problem, will find themselves
under legal challenge for interpreting the law in different ways. And the
law as a whole loses credibility when it is unclear, inconsistent, and
applied , or not, at the whim of individual officers.

All this might be funny were it not so deadly serious. Drug misuse is the
most desperate social problem in western society.

Rather than fight it, the Government has pathetically decided to beat a
retreat, giving in to the people who seem to want to liberalise cannabis
use and ban cigarette smoking at the same time. Now the retreat is
becoming a disorganised shambles.

I think this is a tragic mistake. The evidence is growing that cannabis
can lead to devastating illnesses such as schizophrenia.

I will never forget meeting people in drug rehabilitation centres who told
me never to legalise cannabis because it had led them on to hard drugs, and
the edge of death or despair.

I respect David Blunkett, but he has got this one wrong. His attempt at
compromise leaves the law in utter confusion.

The tragedy is more lives will be ruined before it's put right.