BRITAIN TO EASE PENALTIES FOR PRIVATE POT USE

Police To Seize Drug, Warn Most Caught Possessing Marijuana; Punishment For
Dealing Increased

LONDON - Joining several other European countries that have relaxed their
drug laws, Britain said Wednesday that it would effectively decriminalize
the possession and use of marijuana.

The announcement 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.''

The decision to keep marijuana smoking theoretically illegal but make
private use in small amounts no longer subject to arrest was announced by
Home Secretary David Blunkett in the House of Commons. Though the law will
not take effect until next July, from now on any police action will be
limited to issuing a warning and seizing the drug.

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

Pursue harder drugs

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Blunkett, whose position is roughly
equivalent to that of the U.S. attorney general, defended the change,
arguing that it would give the police more time and resources to go after
violent crime and the use of hard drugs such as heroin. Scotland Yard said
it welcomed the reclassification combined with maintaining a discretionary
police power to intervene.

Britain has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in Europe. About 5
million people in Britain regularly use marijuana, and government data
shows that its use has risen sharply in the past 20 years.

In the United States, California is one of 12 states that effectively
decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Possession of less than an ounce of pot results in no more than a $100 fine
and is considered a misdemeanor. Possession of more than that amount can be
charged either as a misdemeanor or a felony, and enforcement varies broadly
across the state, often depending on the policies of particular district
attorneys and how much of the drug is found.

California also was the nation's first state to legalize marijuana for
medicinal use, with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996. Since then,
seven other states, including Nevada, have approved some form of
medicinal-marijuana law. California's statute, however, has been largely
crippled by the federal government, which has argued successfully in court
that federal drug laws trump Proposition 215.

In Nevada, an initiative certified Tuesday for the November ballot will ask
voters to allow adults to legally possess as much as three ounces of the
drug. Until last year, Nevada had the strictest marijuana laws in the
nation. Smoking just a puff of the drug was a felony that carried a minimum
one-year prison term.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who supports Proposition 215,
would be unlikely to support the type of law headed for the ballot in
Nevada, his press officer said Wednesday. He did not comment on the change
in Britain.

The British government's action followed recommendations of a parliamentary
committee in May that said 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
``ecstasy,'' but Blunkett said he had rejected that advice.

European trend

Several other European countries have already relaxed their drug laws. The
Netherlands has legalized marijuana, while Luxembourg has ended jail
sentences for marijuana possession. Spain and Italy do not jail people
caught with drugs intended for personal use. Last year, Portugal adopted a
law eliminating jail time for possession of small amounts of any illegal drug.

However, a political coalition in the Netherlands, due to come to office
later this month, Wednesday announced plans to tighten some of that
country's drug laws.

In fact, the newest trend in Western Europe is to decriminalize all drugs,
including heroin and cocaine, treating drug use as a health problem rather
than a crime.

``The general trend across Europe is an approach that focuses on the
traffickers and does not pursue the drug user as a criminal,'' Georges
Estievenart, director of the European Union's Monitoring Center for Drugs
and Drug Addiction, told the Washington Post. ``The premise is that it is
not in the interest of society to put these people in jail, where they
don't get treatment but do get fairly easy access to all kinds of drugs.''

Blunkett countered suggestions that Britain was going ``soft on drugs'' by
saying the police would retain the right to arrest users in ``aggravated''
cases, like 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.

Kate Hoey, a Labor member of Parliament, 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.''