BRITAIN EASES LAWS FOR DOPE SMOKERS

LONDON - Britain will respond this week to a dramatic surge in cannabis use
by easing laws and allowing millions of dope fans to smoke without fear of
arrest.

Pressure from police, medical experts and politicians for Britain to take a
less punitive approach has swayed Home Secretary David Blunkett, who is
expected Wednesday to downgrade it to a low risk category C drug.

The downgrade - making cannabis a Class C rather than Class B drug - will
put the drug in the same category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones
and make possessing small amounts of it or smoking it in private a
non-arrestable offense.

A report published late last year showed cannabis is the most commonly used
illicit drug in the European Union, with at least one in 10 adults in the
15-nation group having used it.

The proportion of adults who had used cannabis ranged from 10% in Finland
to 20-25% in Britain, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

But Blunkett, already in trouble over spiraling crime figures and bitter
disputes over police reform, is keen to dress the move up not as an
inevitable softening of attitudes but as a refocusing of resources onto
harder drugs and onto dealers.

Alongside his announcement to downgrade cannabis, he is also expected to
stress that the drug has not and will not be legalized, and announce plans
to double the maximum sentence for dealing in the drug from five to 10 years.

But his "carrot and stick" approach has already run up against criticism
and drawn accusations of "mixed messages."

Oliver Letwin, the opposition Conservative home affairs spokesman, mocked
the supposed tougher sentencing, saying that since cannabis was being
downgraded from Class B, which has a maximum 14 year sentence, to Class A,
which has a five-year maximum sentence, the effect would be a reduction anyway.

"Will he explain how a move from a 14-year maximum sentence to a 10- year
maximum sentence constitutes doubling sentences for cannabis dealer?"
Letwin asked Blunkett in parliament Monday.

For others, the cannabis downgrade is not enough.

A recent parliamentary committee report urged the government to radically
reshape drugs policy and move toward a Dutch-style approach by downgrading
cannabis, relaxing rules on ecstasy and offering heroin addicts free fixes
in injecting rooms.

"Drugs policy in this country has been failing for decades," David Cameron,
an opposition Conservative member of the committee said when the report was
published.

A home office spokeswoman said Blunkett's statement would be "a full
response" to the committee's report, although Blunkett has already
dismissed their suggestion that the clubbers' drug ecstasy should be
downgraded from Class A to Class B drug.

An estimated 5 million people in Britain regularly use cannabis and
government data show its use has risen sharply over the past two decades.

Long-term use of the drug among people aged between 20 to 24 in England and
Wales rose from 12% in 1981 to 52% in 2000.

Researchers said in March that relaxing cannabis laws could save Britain
around 50 million pounds ($77.1 million) a year and free up the equivalent
of 500 police officers.

A study by South Bank University's Criminal Policy Research Unit found that
around 69,000 people were cautioned or convicted for cannabis possession in
1999, with police spending an average of four hours on each offense.
(Compiled from news reports)