UK DRUG BODY SAYS PUNISHMENT DOES NOT STOP DRUGS USE

LONDON - People should not face criminal charges for possessing small
amounts of any illegal drug, a leading UK drugs research organisation said
on Tuesday.

"The evidence shows that criminal sanctions do not stop people using
drugs," DrugScope Chief Executive Roger Howard said in a statement.

He said taking people to court for possessing small amounts of any drug was
not a proportionate response.

Referring to cannabis, a spokesman for DrugScope said: "Criminalisation is
more harmful than the drug itself."

A representative of the organisation, which provides input to policy
development, was due to brief a British parliamentary committee to make the
point on decriminalisation.

The comments come nearly a month after Home Secretary (interior minister)
David Blunkett reclassified cannabis so that possession of small amounts is
no longer deemed an arrestable offence. The ruling put the drug in the same
category as steroids and anti-depressants.

Mike Ashton, editor of the scientific journal Drug and Alcohol Findings,
argued in a report commissioned by DrugScope that cannabis legislation has
no effect on patterns of drug use.

Ashton examined six legal frameworks ranging from total prohibition of
cannabis to free availability, and evidence from changes in the law in
Australia, parts of the United States and the Netherlands.

He said the most harmful effects of the drug -- widespread use and high
levels of personal use -- were unaffected by changes in the law.

"It is clear that cannabis use has remained relatively unaffected by
different legislative frameworks," Ashton said.

The report said limited legal use of cannabis would remove it from the
black market, sever the link with organised crime, create revenue through
tax and prevent minors from using it.

But Ashton did not advocate free availability of cannabis.

"The changes we have seen so far are very, very short of legalisation, even
in the Netherlands," Ashton said. "It is likely that the free availability
option...would result in some increase in cannabis experimentation."

When addressing the parliamentary committee, DrugScope intended to raise
the question of reclassifying all drugs and extending the prescription of
drugs such as heroin.

A spokesman said: "Blunkett has already made significant steps in the right
direction. We hope it will be the beginning and not the end of reform."