SOFT LINE ON CANNABIS 'GIVES POLICY CONTROL TO CRIMINALS'

Relaxing the law on cannabis would hand over control of drugs policy on the
streets to the criminals, Iain Duncan Smith said yesterday.

The Conservative Party leader met people in Brixton, south London, where
the Metropolitan Police has run a "softly softly" attitude to cannabis use
since last July.

His visit came on the eve of an expected announcement from David Blunkett,
the Home Secretary, today that cannabis will be downgraded from a Class B
to a Class C drug, making possessing small amounts or smoking it in private
a non-arrestable offence.

Some Brixton residents told Mr Duncan Smith and Oliver Letwin, the Tory
home affairs spokesman, that they were fearful for their children because
drug dealing was now taking place openly on their streets.

But campaigners for relaxation of the law said they wanted more
liberalisation of drugs, with Dutch-style cannabis cafes to get the dealers
off the pavements.

Mr Duncan Smith claimed that the Government was failing to take account of
the concerns of local people in Brixton before extending the scheme nationwide.

"It is quite wrong surely to hand over drug policy to criminals on the
street," he said.

"We are saying to the Home Secretary stop and think again because this is
not the right way to go about it."

Outside the meeting at a Baptist chapel in Brixton, one pro-cannabis
campaigner accused the Tories of scoring "political points" from the plight
of Brixton residents and said the audience of mainly elderly residents had
not been a true reflection of the local population.

Shane Collins, licensee of Brixton's annual Cannabis Festival, harangued
the Tory leader and said the group "represented a very narrow bunch of
Churches".

But Pauline Cumming, 50, a grandmother and foster parent, said Mr
Blunkett's proposal was an "absolute disaster" and said she was
"frightened" about the future.

"The dealers have no need to hide now. If the Government wanted to try to
control drugs they should have done it in a controlled way in the bars or
other places that adults frequent rather than on the streets," she said.

The Rev Jeanette McLaren, priest-in-charge at St Paul's Church in Brixton,
said she had been offered drugs about twice a week as she walked in Brixton
since the Met's new policy began: "My congregation are very against the
more liberal attitude on the streets and the effect it is having on our
young people."

The proposed extension of the scheme nationwide was "causing a great deal
of concern among parents and grandparents in the community", she added.

Bob Ainsworth, the Home Office drugs minister, accused the Tories of "rank
opportunism" and staging a publicity stunt in Brixton to cover up the fact
that they had no drugs policy of their own.

"A one-off visit to Brixton by the Tory leadership with the national media
in tow will not help the community in Lambeth deal with the long-term law
and order problems in the borough."

He said the Government action was the difference between "getting on with
the job and publicity stunts".

Downing Street said last night that the review of the classification of
cannabis had been backed by the advisory committee on the misuse of drugs,
the police and the Commons Home Affairs select committee.

Mr Blunkett is expected to present the reclassification not as a softening
of attitudes but as a refocusing of resources on to harder drugs and dealers.

He will stress that the drug has not and will not be legalised, and
announce plans to double the maximum sentence for dealing in Class C drugs
from five to 10 years - although the present maximum sentence for supplying
a Class B drug is 14 years.

A Home Office spokeswoman said Mr Blunkett's statement would be "a full
response" to the select committee's report, although he has already
dismissed their suggestion that the clubbers' drug ecstasy should be
downgraded from a Class A to a Class B drug.