BLAIR CHALLENGED ON DRUG SCHEME

IAIN DUNCAN SMITH urged Tony Blair yesterday to scrap an experiment in
Lambeth, South London, under which the police give warnings, rather than
make arrests, for the smoking of cannabis.

The Conservative leader said it had doubled drug-trafficking in the area
and flew in the face of a pledge by the Prime Minister to make Britain the
hardest place to be a drug dealer. Mr Blair repeatedly declined to be
drawn, saying that its impact should be assessed on the basis of evidence.

Although the year-long Brixton experiment is a local initiative by the
Metropolitan Police, MPs are awaiting a statement by David Blunkett, the
Home Secretary, on whether cannabis will be reclassified from a Class B to
a Class C drug. It would remain illegal, but possession of cannabis would
cease to be an arrestable offence. Maximum penalties would be reduced from
14 years' imprisonment to five years for suppling cannabis and from five
years to two years for its possession.

Mr Duncan Smith quoted a senior Metropolitan Police officer as saying that
anything that exposed children to more contact with drugs should not be
tolerated. He said that drug-trafficking had doubled and total drug
offences tripled in Lambeth in the past year. "Community leaders inside the
area are all complaining about it. One has actually said that 'the police
have abandoned the streets to the dealers. If we can see it, why can't the
police?' " he told Mr Blair. "A year ago, he promised to make Britain the
hardest and toughest place to be a drug dealer in the Western world. Will
he stop the scheme now?" The Prime Minister, after snatched conversations
with Mr Blunkett, sitting next to him, said: "If it doesn't work then, of
course, we won't extend it, but it is important that we take into account
all the relevant views that are put to us."

Mr Blair suggested that local opinion was more divided than the Tory leader
maintained and said it would not be right to give a firm opinion until all
evidence had been studied. "There are differences of opinion as to whether
it has worked or not. If we come to the view that it is not working then,
of course, we shan't do it," he said.

"But I think it is important that we consider this on the basis of all the
available evidence and take into account the views of community leaders,
the police and the experts on the ground."

Later Mr Blair struck a sympathetic tone when urged by Alistair Carmichael
(Lib Dem, Orkney and Shetland) to sanction the medicinal use of cannabis.
Mr Carmichael said that one of his constituents had been prosecuted for
cultivating cannabis to relieve the pain of multiple sclerosis.

Mr Blair said the Government was reviewing this issue urgently.

In another exchange, the Prime Minister appealed for sensitivity over a
dramatisation to be screened on ITV next week of the story of Harold
Shipman. James Purnell (Lab, Stalybridge and Hyde) told him: "It is utterly
insensitive of ITV to be broadcasting next week a programme on Harold
Shipman, the very same week that 500 families find out whether he murdered
their relatives."

Mr Blair replied: "There are obviously very, very sensitive and difficult
issues here, which I hope those broadcasting material about the Shipman
case take account of."