Series: Part 1 Of 17

REVEALED: BRITAIN'S DRUG HABIT

Exclusive Poll Shows More Than Half Of Young Flout Law

More than half of Britain's 16- to 24-year-olds have taken illegal drugs,
according to one of the most extensive studies undertaken into the growing
drug culture. The news comes as the Government prepares a significant
relaxation of drugs laws, The Observer can reveal.

More people now believe tobacco is a 'drug of greater risk' than ecstasy,
according to the Observer/ICM poll, which also reveals that more than 5
million people regularly use cannabis, 2.4m ecstasy and 2m amphetamines and
cocaine.

Two in five people between 25 and 34 and more than a third of 35- to
44-year-olds say they have taken unlawful drugs, confirming that drug use
is more prevalent than previously believed. The findings, in a poll
commissioned as part of a months-long investigation into drug use published
today in Drugs Uncovered, a special 64-page magazine free with The
Observer, will increase pressure on the Home Office to speed up reform of
drugs laws.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is now set to lay fresh legislation
before Parliament in June to allow the reclassification of cannabis from
Class B to Class C, a move which many see in effect as decriminalisation.

Government officials said that two of Blunkett's three 'tests' on cannabis
had now been met. Firstly, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
reported earlier this year that it supported reclassification of cannabis.
Secondly, in Lambeth, London, an experiment by the Metropolitan Police
under which users have cannabis seized rather than face arrest has been
seen as a success, with wide public support.

The third test is the long-awaited Home Affairs Select Committee report on
drugs which, as The Observer revealed earlier in the year, will also back
the move when it is published in mid-May. Sources said Blunkett would then
'lay an order in council', allowing an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act.

In another signal that Blunkett is softening his line on drugs, in December
GPs will be sent new guidelines on prescribing heroin. Published by the
Department of Health under pressure from the Home Office, these will say
that doctors should be more willing to prescribe the drug to addicts. The
Home Office hopes that up to 1,500 heroin addicts could be helped. At the
moment only 300 are prescribed heroin by GPs, a tiny percentage of the
270,000 heroin addicts in the country.

The Observer poll reveals that 28 per cent of people over 16 - 13 million
adults - have taken illegal drugs. Men are twice as likely to have taken
drugs as women. Two million people say they took drugs while under 14. Four
out of five illegal drug users have taken cannabis, 27 per cent ecstasy, 25
per cent amphetamines and more than one in five LSD and cocaine.

Roger Howard, chief executive of Drugscope, said: 'We are not surprised.
The threat of criminal sanctions is simply not stopping large numbers of
young people experimenting with drugs.'

Police forces already claim to have insufficient resources to monitor use
of all drugs. The experiment in Lambeth introduced confiscation, rather
than arrest for those found in possession of cannabis. Its pioneer,
Commander Brian Paddick, has now been suspended after a former partner
claimed he had smoked cannabis in Paddick's home.

Under the scheme, arrests for dealing in hard drugs have climbed and street
robberies have fallen.

Opponents of existing drugs laws say the illegality of cannabis and ecstasy
in particular leads to the 'criminalisation' of otherwise law-abiding young
people. Last year Prince Harry admitted taking cannabis while celebrating
the end of his GCSEs.

The Home Affairs Select Committee is expected to recommend this summer that
cannabis be decriminalised and ecstasy downgraded to Class B.

However, even as the Home Secretary wrestles with Britain's drugs crisis,
he faces public pressure not to relax the drugs laws. Just 35 per cent of
voters say cannabis should be decriminalised; 7 per cent want ecstasy made
legal; only 4 per cent think all drugs should be freely available.

ICM Research polled 1,075 people aged 16-plus in February/March. The
results were weighted to reflect the profile of all adults.