CANNABIS RECLASSIFIED: WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

Last Wednesday the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, announced both that the
government intends to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug
and that the maximum sentence for dealing class C drugs will be raised to
14 years. Here's a selection of the press reaction

"Mr Blunkett is an ideological version of one of those hermaphroditic
parrotfish. One day he feels the jackboot forming invisibly round his
shins; the next day he seems to want to freak out and wear flowers in his
hair. Labour can't work out whether it is libertarian, authoritarian,
vegetarian or Rotarian. There is no Third Way with cannabis.

You can't suck and blow at the same time - with or without inhaling" -
Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph, 11 July "This is the biggest gamble that
New Labour has taken and I back it to the hilt. Please God that they have
got it right.

If they have not, our children will drown in a tide of drug addiction...
These are genuinely earth-shaking events, raising questions about how we
live our lives... We have to think about how best to create a free society
for our kids. Blunkett never looked like a politician who would do that.
Yesterday, he proved me wrong" - Paul Routledge, The Mirror, 11 July

"The drug experiment in London's Lambeth is an utter failure.

Dealers rule the roost.

Drugs of all kinds are sold openly.

And all this because Commander Brian Paddick of the Metropolitan Police was
allowed to start a stupid experiment. Now the Home Secretary is taking one
of the biggest risks of his career ... Yesterday's announcement proves one
thing, though.

David Blunkett's got guts. He doesn't do things by halves... " - The Sun,
editorial, 11 July

"David Blunkett's statement to the Commons yesterday was far more than just
a reclassification of cannabis... There are two other attractive parts of
the policy: an increase in treatment facilities and an expanded heroin
prescribing programme, moving the addiction from a criminal offence to a
medical need, an old and sensible approach.

Traditionally, our drug policy has been hopelessly lopsided, spending 75%
on enforcement (which does not work) and only 13% on treatment (which
does)... Now a further ?183m over three years will be invested.

The balance will still not be right, but the move is in the right
direction". - The Guardian, editorial, 11 July

"[Smoking cannabis] is not an admirable habit but it should be treated
proportionately. It is in the interests of public and police alike to make
a firmer distinction between those drugs that render people their slaves
and others that satisfy a relatively harmless personal thrill.

The Class C position, which permits the police to confiscate cannabis and
give warnings, is sound... [However, Blunkett's] proposal to raise the
maximum sentence for those dealing Class C drugs to 14 years' imprisonment,
the same as that for Class B drugs, looks like an attempt to cover his back
politically. It means, to put it crudely, that there is no incentive for a
dealer to specialise in cannabis and abandon amphetamines" - The Times,
editorial, 11 July

"[Blunkett] seems unduly keen on allowing the police virtually all their
old powers of confiscation. So much so, in fact, that special laws will
have to be passed to make blowing dope smoke at a policeman an offence...
And by insisting that 'all drugs are harmful', with the clear implication
that all drugs are equally harmful, Mr Blunkett leaves himself open to
ridicule ... The Government's policy on drugs has become more befuddled
than the most dedicated afficionado of skunk" - The Independent, editorial,
11 July

"Drugs are a part of life for millions of young people - and a lot who are
not so young.

So easing the law on cannabis is not so much an earth-shattering
breakthrough as a small step towards a more sensible policy. It will mean
that a huge number of people are no longer criminals simply because they
smoke a joint.

So far, so good. But there is a long way to go if the real menace of drugs
is to be properly tackled, and David Blunkett... refuses to move further
... There can only be one possible result of that: the drugs crisis will
get worse" - Daily Mirror, editorial, 11 July