CANNABIS LAWS SOFTENED, BUT NEW CRACKDOWN ON DEALERS

David Blunkett allowed police to retain powers to arrest people for
cannabis possession yesterday, yielding to critics who accused him of
going soft on drugs.

The Home Secretary announced to Parliament that he was reclassifying
the drug from Class B to Class C, the most important change to
Britain's drugs laws in modern times. But instead of a blanket
downgrading of the offence of cannabis possession, he said that the
police would still be able to apprehend users of the drug in certain
circumstances.

Mr Blunkett told the House of Commons: "They will be able to arrest for
possession where public order is threatened or where children are a risk."

The Home Secretary also said he was considering a new criminal offence
of supplying illegal drugs to children. In addition, he will raise the
maximum sentence for dealing in Class C drugs to 14 years, the current
ultimate penalty for supplying Class B drugs.

Because the changes will require primary legislation they will not
come into effect for another 12 months, delaying once again what drug
law reformers had hoped would be a substantial shift indrug policy.
Despite the concessions to hardliners, the decision to go ahead with
reclassification prompted a furious response from those opposed to any
softening of the law.

Mr Blunkett was embarrassed yesterday morning when the former drugs
tsar Keith Hellawell went on national radio to announce that he had
resigned his post as international drugs adviser to the Government.

Mr Hellawell said his decision was in protest at the relaxation of the
law on cannabis.

Claiming that the reclassification would lead to "euphoria amongst
drug dealers" he said: "The perception now, certainly in Britain, is
that the Government doesn't care about personal possession of
cannabis, which gives a totally misleading message to parents,
children and the public as a whole."

Downing Street claimed to be "bemused" by Mr Hellawell's position,
saying he had been supportive of proposals to reclassify cannabis
during meetings with Mr Blunkett and other Home Office ministers.

In the Commons, Mr Blunkett was accused by Oliver Letwin, the shadow
Home Secretary, of landing the Government with a "massive liability"
and the country's communities with "the prospect of social disaster".

Mr Letwin told MPs that the policy would send out "deeply confusing
mixed messages" and would in effect "give control over cannabis to the
drugs dealers with the police turning away".

Mr Blunkett admitted that until to two years ago he was against
reclassification. He said: "But I have been convinced by the evidence,
by the need to target hard drug dealers, by the way we can clamp down
on the ones who are threatening the lives of young people across the
country."

The Home Secretary faced further criticism from his own backbenchers,
with Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, criticising the effects of a
Metropolitan Police experiment on cannabis reclassification in her
constituency in south London.

She told Mr Blunkett: "There are more drug dealers than ever and there are
more people using cannabis. In 10 or 20 years' time, are you certain we will
not look back on this day as the one where we got it wrong?"

The Home Secretary claimed that the so-called Lambeth Experiment had
led to a 10 per cent increase in the capture of Class A drug dealers
and a 10 per cent fall in robberies.

Chris Mullin, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, which
recently called for a softening of the cannabis laws, said
reclassification was "plain common sense". But Mr Blunkett said he had
rejected the committee's suggestions that ecstasy should be made a
Class B drug and that heroin users should be given access to safe
injecting rooms.

Roger Howard, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, said that by
dismissing the idea of injecting rooms, Mr Blunkett had "missed a
golden opportunity".

He described the Home Secretary's package of drug reforms as ranging
from the "impressively forward-looking to the dangerously
short-sighted". He said people could still be jailed for two years for
possession of cannabis.

The key points

* Cannabis to be reclassified from Class B to Class C
drug.

* Police to retain powers of arrest for cannabis possession in certain
circumstances.

* Possible new criminal offence of supplying any illegal drugs to
children.

* Maximum sentence for dealing in Class C drugs to be 14
years.

* Changes will not come into effect for 12 months.

* No change in classification of ecstasy as Class B drug, and no plans
for heroin users to be given access to safe injecting rooms, so-called
shooting galleries.