DUNCAN SMITH'S DRUGS VISIT BACKFIRES

An attempt by Iain Duncan Smith to draw attention to the Conservatives'
hard line on drugs with a visit to Brixton in South London backfired
yesterday when he was jeered by community workers handpicked by party
officials.

The Tory leader had intended to demonstrate the strength of opposition to
plans to be announced by David Blunkett today to downgrade cannabis and put
it in the same category as steroids and anti-depressants. Mr Duncan Smith
told reporters before his visit that the "softly, softly" attitude to the
drug, which had been police policy in South London since last July, had
left the people of Brixton feeling betrayed and used.

When he arrived at Brixton Baptist Church, it did not look as if the
assembled group would disagree. Arranged in a small circle in the ante-room
of the church were seven elderly women, two women under 60 -- one of them a
vicar -- and a male youth worker.

Unfortunately, several of the women admitted that they did not know who Mr
Duncan Smith was, while the youth worker turned out to be a Liberal
Democrat Party member and a convinced advocate of the soft drugs policy
that Mr Duncan Smith had come to criticise.

To make matters worse, when Mr Duncan Smith began to speak, Shane Collins,
the Green Party's drugs spokesman, shouted abuse from the back of the room
as Tory officials struggled to silence him.

Mr Duncan Smith said: "This is not a party political issue. It is an issue
that affects everyone of all parties." But the youth worker, Huey Rose, 32,
told him: "Why have you been so late to come down to Brixton? What is the
Conservative Party's intention coming here now? "Why didn't you come
before, why didn't you come and meet with the black community? Many times
when black people have cried out to the Conservative Party there has not
been a listening ear for the black youth."

There were shouts and gestures of approval from the more elderly members of
the group when Mr Rose said: "Police time is being wasted -- they are
spending three or four hours on a cannabis suspect when they could be
concentrating on the harder drugs."

Mr Duncan Smith was accompanied by Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home
Secretary, who was one of eight shadow ministers two years ago to admit
that they had experimented with cannabis in their youth.

Mr Letwin drew a blank when he questioned the assembled group. He asked one
mother: "Have you come across a situation where young people go from soft
to hard drugs." She replied: "No, that doesn't happen."

After twenty minutes, the television cameras and reporters were asked to
leave. Mr Duncan Smith said: "It is a bit restricting to have the press
around."

Afterwards, Mr Duncan Smith insisted that the people he had met had
supported his policy of a tougher line on cannabis dealing. "My point is it
is quite wrong, surely, to hand over your drugs policy to criminal youths
on the streets," he said.

Mr Blunkett's expected announcement on cannabis was criticised by a senior
Labour peer yesterday. Lord Warner, the chairman of the Youth Justice
Board, said that the Government had failed to explain the long-term danger
to health posed by the drug.

He said that the health implications of cannabis use had not been debated
as much as they should be. Lord Warner published a report which said that
half of young offenders had used the drug, and that availability of drugs
was an important factor leading to youth offending.

"I would hope that the medical evidence on prolonged use of cannabis could
be put more in the public arena and debated more," he said.

"Cannabis is in large part a health issue, and what are the longer-term
consequences of many of those youngsters taking large amounts of cannabis
during their development years?"