NOW CRUSH THE DEALERS

THE one thing everyone can agree on about drugs is that the current
laws are not working.

More people are taking drugs. Drugs are responsible for more crime.
Dealing with drugs offences absorbs more police time.

In other words, everything is getting worse.

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, the Home Secretary, refuses to
move further.

It's not just that he won't do anything, he has closed his mind to any
more changes in the law.

There can be only one possible result of that: the drugs crisis will
get worse.

There should be two key aims to drugs policy - to crush the organised
gangsters who run the trade and to do something for addicts who
desperately need help.

What is Mr Blunkett doing about those? Very little. His reforms won't
make dealers fear losing their lucrative income.