HALF OF CANNABIS SMOKED BY BRITONS IS HOMEGROWN

HALF of the cannabis smoked in Britain is being grown at people's homes
rather than being imported by drugs barons, according to new research.

Figures to be released this week by the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit,
which produces statistics used by the Government for policy planning, will
show that 47 per cent of cannabis used in Britain in 2001 was home-grown by
the user or a friend. This figure compares with 12.9 per cent in 1994.

The average cannabis smoker also uses almost twice as much of the drug -
44.5 grammes a year - as in 1994, when the figure was 24.8 grammes.

Critics say that the figures prove that the Government's relaxation of the
laws on cannabis possession has led to a steep rise in the number of
smokers growing their own supplies without fear of arrest, and believe that
a message is being sent out that the drug is safe.

Baroness Greenfield, a professor of pharmacology at Oxford University who
has produced medical evidence that the drug is harmful, said that regular
cannabis use could leave smokers with serious health problems.

She said: "What we have to tell young people is that they are tampering
with the most special part of their bodies - their brains, their minds -
over a long time." Critics also believe that relaxing the laws on cannabis
has fuelled a move to harder drugs.

In June last year, the Metropolitan Police announced that in Lambeth, south
London, officers would not arrest anyone caught with a small amount of
cannabis but instead would caution them. The Police Federation, which
represents all ranks below superintendent, later claimed that the six-month
policing experiment had failed.

Fred Broughton, the federation's chairman, told the House of Commons Home
Affairs Select Committee last month that the scheme had failed to cut drug
use and cannabis was being smoked openly on the streets of Brixton. Crack
dealers are becoming more active as a result, he said.

A leading Government adviser on drugs told The Telegraph, however, that
cannabis users should be allowed to grow dope plants in their own homes
without any fear of being prosecuted.

Roger Howard, a member of the Home Office Advisory Group on Drugs, said
that as David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has announced that cannabis
possession is to be downgraded from a class B to a class C offence, it made
sense to allow people to grow it.

Mr Howard said: "As the Government moves towards making small-scale
cannabis possession a non-arrestable offence, I hope it will resolve this
contradiction by differentiating in law between small-scale cultivation for
personal use and large-scale production controlled by organised crime."

Last night Janet Betts, the mother of Leah Betts who died after taking
ecstasy on her 18th birthday in Essex in 1995, condemned the suggestion.

She said: "It is unbelievable that a Government adviser could recommend
changing the law on cultivation of cannabis in the home. Cannabis is a
dangerous drug.

"Would you like your dentist or bus driver to be using Australian super
skunk cannabis that could blow your socks off? Just because it is in your
own home does not mean that it is all right."