VOTE TO LEGALISE DRUGS DEFIES LIB DEM LEADER

Cannabis would be legalised and the possession of hard drugs such as
cocaine effectively decriminalised under reforms backed by the Liberal
Democrats yesterday.

In a setback for party leader Charles Kennedy, who had wanted a more
modest shakeup, the party's spring conference voted for the most
radical package of drug law reforms ever supported by mainstream
British politicians.

Cannabis would be sold in shops as openly and legally as cigarettes,
while being caught with small amounts of any illegal drug for personal
use - even Class A substances such as heroin and cocaine - would no
longer lead to a jail sentence, under the measures which have now
become official Liberal Democrat policy.

The measures - which will reopen passionate debate over Britain's
drugs laws - had been condemned by anti-drugs campaigners who warned
they would only encourage addiction. And they leave Kennedy facing an
awkward dilemma as he tries to woo socially conservative former Tory
voters.

Senior Lib Dems insisted they were reflecting a trend across Europe
recognising that outright prohibition had not worked.

'This was an important debate about a difficult issue which the
Liberal Democrats have had the courage to con sider in a thoughtful
and constructive way,' Kennedy said in a statement last night.

'The party has decided that the criminal law should concentrate on the
dealers, traffickers and exploiters of drugs rather than the users who
need help and treatment.'

The statement carefully avoided welcoming the conference decision
however, and privately insiders said the most radical ideas were
unlikely to survive into Kennedy's next manifesto.

The leadership's own policy group had put forward a more limited set
of reforms which would have decriminalised cannabis, turned ecstasy
into a more lightly-regulated Class B instead of Class A drug, but
ensured that possession of hard drugs remained an imprisonable offence.

Simon Hughes, the party's home affairs spokesman, said the vote was
'not a rush of blood to the head' but came after carefully weighing
the evidence on for two years.

'My experience is that people who have had the tragedy of drugs come
into their lives know that the current law doesn't work and they want
another alternative,' he said.

The motion before the conference in Manchester accepts that
legalisation will not be possible until the UN convention on drug
trafficking - which Britain has signed, and which prohibits complete
legalisation of marijuana - has been renegotiated, making it a
long-term aim.

Delegates backed wider powers for doctors to prescribe heroin to
addicts as part of a treatment programme.

The Lib Dems will today vote on an emergency motion opposing British
involvement in US strikes against Iraq. The motion calls on the
British Government 'to oppose in the current circumstances any new
aggressive military actions proposed by the United States against Iraq.'