EDUCATION NEEDED FOR DRUG USERS

RICHARD Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales, believes there
should be a major rethink on drugs crime.

"if you're not mugging old ladies and not stealing from shops, and
not stealing cars, what actually is the problem?" he asked.

"We have the harshest drug laws in Europe and by far the worst drug
abuse problem," he said. "We are losing the war... and we must look
at other alternatives."

He appears to have a valid point, but is conveniently ignoring the
fact that drug abuse is not merely a criminal problem, and that petty
crime, driven by the need to finance addiction, is by no means its
only side effect.

A Government-commissioned report published yesterday recommended that
cannabis be downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug. This falls
far short of decriminalisation.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said that while
recommending the downgrading, it was not saying cannabis was harmless.

"Cannabis is associated with some risks to health."

This is why the use of the drug has always been discouraged by the
law, and why many people strongly believe that the law should
continue to discourage its use.

If it is true, as Mr Brunstrom and others believe, that the war has
been lost, simply throwing in the towel, and effectively encouraging
young people to abuse the drug more, would be the worst possible
response.

The ACMD called for the dangers associated with the use of the drug
to be widely publicised.

The Home Office has yet to decide whether to act on the ACMD's
recommendations and change the law on cannabis.

But whether it does or not, there is an urgent need to address the
health education issue. Cannabis users must be stopped from "mugging
old ladies."

They must also be discouraged from ruin-mg their own health.