BLUNKETT GAMBLES WITH OUR CHILDREN

DAVID Blunkett last night admitted he is taking a giant gamble with
Britain's children by effectively legalising cannabis.

The Home Secretary ruled dope smokers WON'T be arrested.

They will be merely ticked off and have their drugs confiscated.

Mr Blunkett is downgrading cannabis to a Class C substance so police
have more time to combat heroin and crack. The worry is more kids will
turn to pot.

Furious Labour MP Kate Hoey accused him of risking the future of the
nation's youth, saying: "In ten or 20 years' time, are you certain
that you will not look back on this day as the one when you got it
wrong?"

Mr Blunkett conceded the change was a gamble during stormy Commons
exchanges. He said: "There are no certainties when dealing with drugs
policies. If there were, we would have found them by now."

He decided to reclassify cannabis as Class C despite fierce opposition
from the Government's own drugs czar Keith Hellawell.

Ex-chief constable Mr Hellawell made his feelings clear hours earlier
by announcing he had quit.

Under historic changes, police will hand out fixed-penalty tickets to
persistent dope users.

People caught smoking the drug in the street will effectively be let
off with a caution.

An experiment in Kate Hoey's constituency in Lambeth, South London,
where officers turn a blind eye to cannabis, will be expanded across
the capital within weeks.

The new approach will be nationwide by October. Miss Hoey said drug
dealing and cannabis use had shot up since the Lambeth experiment began.

She fumed: "The message going out to families across the country is
very stark and uncomfortable." Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin
said: "This is a muddled and dangerous policy. Why, if he is
effectively decriminalising cannabis, does he still want people to buy
their cannabis from criminals?"

And Tory MP Andrew Lansley said: "There will be more opportunity for
dealers interested in moving people from cannabis to harder drugs."

Home Office officials insisted Mr Blunkett was NOT going soft.

They said seven out of ten drugs convictions were for dope and that
police should concentrate on hard Class A substances.

A new offence of peddling outside schools will be brought in. And the
maximum sentence for dealing in cannabis will be increased from five
years to 14.

A cop in drug-plagued Brixton said: "We see a lot of kids smoking pot.
Before, we could arrest them and get them to speak to a referral
worker -- now we can't."