BRITISH MIGHT REDUCE POT PENALTY

Blair Wants To Downgrade Drug's Status

LONDON (AP) - The British government wants to downgrade marijuana's status
as a drug, putting it on par with steroids rather than amphetamines and
barbiturates - a move that would let most users off with a warning.

Yesterday Prime Minister Tony Blair's government outlined a proposal to the
House of Commons that would relax marijuana laws, stopping short of
legalization. The goal is to let police focus their enforcement efforts on
harder drugs.

Blair's Labor Party has a large majority in Parliament, and the proposal is
virtually certain to pass.

Under the plan, marijuana would be downgraded from a Class B to a Class C
drug, making its use and possession less serious crimes, Home Secretary
David Blunkett said in outlining the plan to the House of Commons. Police
would retain the authority to arrest those caught with marijuana but in
most cases would simply confiscate the drug and issue a warning.

"The message to young people and families must be open, honest and
believable," Blunkett said. "Cannabis is a potentially harmful drug and
should remain illegal. However, it is not comparable with crack, heroin and
Ecstasy."

Blair said the proposal did not amount to decriminalization and had wide
support among the police because it would allow them to spend more time
fighting more serious drugs.

The opposition Conservative Party criticized the proposal as potentially
dangerous to the public, and a government adviser resigned in protest.

In the United States, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws praised the British policy shift.

"Great Britain's reclassification of cannabis is an honest and common-sense
approach to refocus drug policy on those substances that cause the most
harm," said the group's founder and executive director, Keith Stroup.

Laws differ among individual U.S. states. But eight states have taken some
kind of step toward permitting marijuana for medicinal use: California,
Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada and Colorado.