BRITISH LOOSEN LAWS ON POT USE

LONDON -- Britain, which has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in
Europe, said Wednesday it was relaxing its laws on marijuana smoking,
keeping the practice theoretically illegal but making private use in
discreet amounts no longer subject to arrest.

The decision, announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett in the House of
Commons, stirred criticism from the Conservative opposition and some Labor
politicians and prompted the government's drugs chief to resign because, he
said, Britain is "moving further toward decriminalization than any other
country in the world."

Blunkett tempered his announcement, which takes effect next July and puts
cannabis on a par with antidepressants and steroids, by saying he also
would raise the punishment for marijuana dealing and step up drug education
and treatment for abusers.

An estimated 5 million people in Britain regularly use marijuana, and
government data show that its use has risen sharply in the past 20 years.

A study published last year on drug habits in the European Union showed
that 20 percent to 25 percent of adults in Britain used marijuana - about
the same rate as shown for Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

The government action followed recommendations of a parliamentary committee
in May which said that a new attitude of tolerance would give drug policy
greater credibility among young people and help the police direct resources
toward heroin and cocaine.

Britain has the most drug-related deaths of any country in the European
Union, with heroin cited as the principal cause.

The parliamentary committee also suggested reclassifying the club drug
ecstacy, but Blunkett said he had rejected that advice.

Several other European countries already have relaxed their drug laws.

The Netherlands has legalized marijuana, while Luxemburg has ended jail
sentences for marijuana possession.

Spain and Italy do not jail people caught with drugs meant for personal
use. Last year, Portugal adopted a law eliminating jail time for possession
of small amounts of any illegal drug.

Under the British reform, possession of marijuana would no longer be
considered an arrestable offense. Though this will not take effect for a
year, from now on any police action will be limited to issuing a warning
and seizing the drug.

Blunkett countered suggestions that Britain was going "soft on drugs" by
saying the police would retain the right to arrest users in "aggravated"
cases such as smoking outside schools or in the presence of children.

The Home Office stressed that any marijuana cafes where the drug is sold
and used openly remained illegal and would be closed.

"It is critical that police can maintain public order," Blunkett said.
"Where cannabis possession is linked to aggravated behavior that threatens
public order, the police will retain the power of arrest."

Scotland Yard said it welcomed the new reclassification of the drug
combined with maintaining a discretionary police power to intervene. The
drugs spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, Andy Hayman,
said, "The retention of police power of arrest will enable the police to
have greater flexibility in dealing with incidents on the street."

Blunkett insisted that Wednesday's move did not constitute legalizing
marijuana. "All controlled drugs are harmful and will remain illegal," he
said. "We must concentrate our efforts on the drugs that cause the most
harm, while sending a credible message to young people."

But Keith Hellawell, Prime Minister Tony Blair's one-time anti-drug chief,
said the new policy "would virtually be decriminalization of cannabis, and
this is, quite frankly, giving out the wrong message."

He coupled the announcement of his resignation with a strong attack on the
proposals, saying they would damage communities and lead to more, not less,
drug use.

"It's actually a technical adjustment which in the reality of the law
doesn't make a great deal of difference," Hellawell said, "but it's being
bandied about by people as a softening of the law."

He said there had been an increase in marijuana smoking among young people
and that more people were seeking treatment for its effects.

"Why on earth, when there are these problems, we change our message and
give a softer message, I don't know," he said.

Hellawell, the former chief constable of West Yorkshire, had been named the
government's first anti-drugs coordinator by Blair in 1997, but last year
he was sidelined by Blunkett from the post and made a part-time adviser on
the international drug trade control.

The new police tolerance has been in effect on an experimental basis in two
London neighborhoods, Lambeth and Brixton.

The Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith visited the Brixton project on
Tuesday and told the Commons on Wednesday that residents had told him that
it had led to rampant dealing on their streets. He said Blunkett's plan
amounted to "handing over drugs policy to criminals on the street."

Oliver Letwin, the Conservatives' spokesman on law enforcement, complained
that "the middle ground of calling it illegal, leaving it in the hands of
dealers rather than in legitimate tobacconists or whatever, then turning a
blind eye to it, is the worst of all worlds."

Kate Hoey, a Labor member of Parliament who represents one of the affected
London areas, said the government could live to regret Wednesday's decision
because of the increasing strength of marijuana being peddled on the street.

"It is a very strong type of cannabis, it's genetically modified, it is not
perhaps like people tried 20 years ago," she said, "and we have no idea of
the long-term effects of constant hard smoking that some kids are doing now."