BRITAIN TO STOP ARRESTING MOST PRIVATE USERS OF MARIJUANA

LONDON - Britain, which has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in
Europe, said today that it was relaxing its laws on marijuana smoking,
keeping the practice theoretically illegal but making private use in
discreet amounts no longer subject to arrest.

The decision, announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett in the House of
Commons, stirred criticism from the Conservative opposition and some Labor
politicians and prompted the country's former antidrug chief to resign as a
government adviser because, he said, Britain is "moving further toward
decriminalization than any other country in the world."

Mr. Blunkett tempered his announcement, which takes effect next July and
puts cannabis on a par with antidepressants and steroids, by saying he
would also raise the punishment for marijuana dealing and step up drug
education and treatment for abusers.

An estimated five million people in Britain regularly use marijuana, and
government data show that its use has risen sharply in the last 20 years.

A study published last year on drug habits in the European Union showed
that 20 to 25 percent of adults in Britain used marijuana - about the same
rate as shown for Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

The government action followed recommendations of a parliamentary committee
in May, which 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 drug Ecstasy,
but Mr. Blunkett said he had rejected that advice.

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 meant for personal use. Last year Portugal eliminated
jail time for possession of small amounts of any illegal drug.

Under the British reform, possession of marijuana would no longer be
considered an arrestable offense. Though that will not take effect for a
year, from now on any police action will be limited to issuing a warning
and seizing the drug.

Mr. Blunkett countered suggestions that Britain was going "soft on drugs"
by saying the police would retain the right to arrest users in cases like
smoking outside schools or in the presence of children. The Home Office
emphasized that any marijuana cafes where the drug was sold and used openly
remained illegal and would be closed.

"It is critical that police can maintain public order," Mr. Blunkett said.
"Where cannabis possession is linked to aggravated behavior that threatens
public order, the police will retain the power of arrest."

Scotland Yard said it welcomed the reclassification of the drug combined
with maintaining a discretionary police power to intervene. The drug
spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, Andy Hayman, said,
"The retention of police power of arrest will enable the police to have
greater flexibility in dealing with incidents on the street."

Mr. Blunkett insisted that today's move did not constitute legalizing
marijuana. "All controlled drugs are harmful and will remain illegal," he
said. "We must concentrate our efforts on the drugs that cause the most
harm, while sending a credible message to young people."

But Keith Hellawell, Prime Minister Tony Blair's onetime antidrug chief,
said the new policy "would virtually be decriminalization of cannabis, and
this is, quite frankly, giving out the wrong message."

He coupled the announcement of his resignation from a government advisory
post with a strong attack on the policy, saying it would damage communities
and lead to more, not less, drug use.

"It's actually a technical adjustment which in the reality of the law
doesn't make a great deal of difference," Mr. Hellawell said, "but it's
being bandied about by people as a softening of the law."

He said that there had been an increase in marijuana smoking among young
people and that more people were seeking treatment for its effects. "Why on
earth, when there are these problems, we change our message and give a
softer message, I don't know," he said.

Mr. Hellawell, the former chief constable of West Yorkshire, was named the
government's first antidrug coordinator by Mr. Blair in 1997, but last year
he was sidelined by Mr. Blunkett from the $160,000-a-year post and made a
part-time adviser on the international drug trade.

The new police tolerance has been in effect on an experimental basis in two
London neighborhoods, Lambeth and Brixton. The Conservative leader, Iain
Duncan Smith, visited the Brixton project on Tuesday and told the Commons
today that residents had told him it had led to rampant dealing on their
streets. He said Mr. Blunkett's plan amounted to "handing over drugs policy
to criminals on the street."

Oliver Letwin, the Conservatives' spokesman on law enforcement, complained
that "the middle ground of calling it illegal, leaving it in the hands of
dealers rather than in legitimate tobacconists or whatever, then turning a
blind eye to it, is the worst of all worlds."

Kate Hoey, a Labor member of Parliament who represents one of the affected
London areas, said the government could live to regret today'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."