DRUG LAWS WILL NOT BE CHANGED, SAYS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

THE Department of Justice yesterday ruled out changes in drug laws
following calls for the Government to follow Britain's example in making
possession of cannabis a non-arrestable offence. "The evidence from Britain
would certainly suggest the Government should look at this issue again,"
said Liam Herrick of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. "Police there
felt an excessive amount of time was being spent on an issue that doesn't
have any obvious social harms and was hampering police ability to tackle
more serious drug-related crime."

Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party said: "Change in Britain should be a
catalyst for an immediate opening of the issue here."

He said the debate should focus on how to reduce drug use, including alcohol.

"It may well be in the course of that debate it emerges decriminalisation
is the way to go. It's not really sustainable to criminalise a whole
section of young people and ordinary people who use it as an alternative to
alcohol."

Labour Party's deputy leader Brendan Howlin has called for a debate saying
it was unacceptable to criminalise young people for possessing cannabis.
The National Crime Forum report in 1998 said decriminalisation required
careful study and should be discussed in "a calm and dispassionate manner".

The former minister of state with responsibility for drugs, Eoin Ryan, said
last summer that people caught with small amounts of cannabis should not
have a criminal record.

However, a department of justice spokeswoman yesterday said: "The position
hasn't changed in relation to cannabis. There are no plans to change the
law." A Garda spokesman said they implement the law and that under the law
cannabis possession is an offence.

Yesterday's move in Britain, announced by the Home Secretary David
Blunkett, means cannabis will be reclassified from a class B to class C
drug. This means cannabis possession will be effectively decriminalised by
July next year, although Mr Blunkett denied it amounted to decriminalisation.

However, he said in most cases of cannabis possession police officers will
simply "issue a warning and seize the drugs". The British government's
former drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell, resigned in protest, claiming the move
was "giving out the wrong message".

The Northern Ireland drug chief, Jo Daykin, yesterday said cannabis use
there could spiral following the move. This could result in an increase in
cross border travel among cannabis users, and dealers, in the south.