HIGH HOPES OF GOING TO DOPE

It's one of the burning social issues of our time and this week Home
Secretary David Blunkett has reignited it again. Politically, in proposing
to reclassify cannabis as a Class C drug, he's shown great political
courage. Few Home Secretaries in the past would have dared to make such a
concession.

Just look at the front page treatment given to Mr Blunkett's announcement
by The Sun yesterday.

The tabloid newspaper chose to carry the story about the IRA beginning to
decommission arms and Mr Blunkett's proposal to reclassify cannabis under
the same banner headline "What are they on? Peace Man!". Mildly
entertaining perhaps, but should we really be making light of two such
serious issues as drugs policy and the future of Northern Ireland?
Heralding a massive shake-up of drugs policy, the Home Secretary says
possession of cannabis should no longer be an arrestable offence. His
proposal to reclassify the drug as Class C puts it in the same category as
anti-depressants or steroids - a remarkable turnaround for Labour, who came
to power in 1997 pledging a "zero tolerance" policy on drugs. He denies it
is decriminalisation, stressing cannabis will remain illegal, but says it
will make drugs laws "more sense on the street". In practice, cannabis
users will be unlikely to face any consequences if they are caught with
small amounts of the drug.

Mr Blunkett will be asking the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for
scientific advice before going ahead - but the group first recommended
reclassifying cannabis in 1979.

If the ACMD reports back within three months, Mr Blunkett says he could
make a final decision on the proposals next spring.

"To have credible policy in treatment and harm minimisation and above all
consistency in law enforcement and policing, we believe it is right to look
at the re-categorisation of cannabis,' Mr Blunkett told the House of
Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday.

"I shall therefore be putting to the ACMD a proposal that we should
re-categorise cannabis to C rather than B, thereby allowing the police to
concentrate their resources on Class A, in particular cocaine and heroin."
"Above all, it will make sense to both those policing the system and those
providing education and advice to prevent young people falling into
addiction.' Not according to Chris Sadler, chairman of Suffolk police
federation, who condemned Mr Blunkett's proposals to relax the cannabis
laws by declassifying the drug. "We do not like the idea because it sends
out the wrong signal that basically, society is getting soft on drugs," he
said.

"We would not say to motorists driving along the A140 who should be going
only 40mph that we cannot cope with trying to stop them going over that so
we will raise it to 50mph. It just wouldn't happen.

"It's not something we welcome and it's not the right thing to happen if we
want to deter young people from experimenting with drugs. "If we start
saying we will not do you for cannabis now, then youngsters will say: "Oh
well, we'll do something else instead or try something a bit harder,"
because youngsters generally like to rebel."

"If you make something less illegal than generally more people are going to
try it." A Suffolk Police spokesman said: "It's the police's duty to uphold
the law and if there are changes to the law those changes will, of course,
be upheld. "Already our policy in Suffolk is to target particular drug
dealers who deal in class A drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin as these
are the drugs that do the most damage in our society."

"We have an anti drugs campaign in Suffolk which specifically targets
dealers called Operation Crackdown where people can call a free to give
information on 0800 253253."

Essex Police declined to comment. Carey Godfrey, co-ordinator of the
Suffolk Drugs Action Team, said his organisation had long been calling for
a proper debate, but was anxious to highlight the risks of cannabis use.

"We have been saying for sometime there needs to be a full debate on the
cannabis issue. It is very confusing for young people when you look at the
degree of harm caused by different drugs including legal drugs such as
alcohol. "The Suffolk Drugs Action Team continues to take the approach
there are risks associated with cannabis use both from the health and
social perspective. In fact all our education to young people highlights
the risks of all drug use, including cannabis."

Conservative MP Tim Yeo broke ranks with the Shadow Cabinet by calling for
cannabis to be made available for medicinal use, and for an open debate on
whether the drug should be decriminalised.

The then Shadow Agriculture Minister, now Shadow Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport, became the eighth Shadow Cabinet minister to
admit taking cannabis in his youth after then Shadow Home Secretary Ann
Widdecombe unveiled her zero-tolerance policy to soft drugs at last year's
Conservative Party Conference.

The South Suffolk MP, who has admitted taking the drug while at university,
said he had been greatly influenced by the experience of his son Jonathan,
who took cannabis to ease the side-effects of chemotherapy treatment for
cancer. But a leading East Anglian doctor spearheading Government research
into the medicinal use of cannabis warned study should not be confused with
recreational use of the drug.

Dr William Notcutt runs a pain relief clinic at the James Paget Hospital at
Gorleston and has patients from a wide area of north Suffolk and south
Norfolk. In May last year the Government gave the go-ahead for the use of
cannabis in medical research by authorising a number of trials by the
Medicines Control Agency. The full-scale programme involved patients
suffering from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, severe pain and
spasticity.

One of the trials is being run by Dr Notcutt at the James Paget Hospital
but he dismisses claims that the Government's proposals to reclassify
cannabis as a class C drug will have an immediate impact on the medical
studies. "I do not believe the Government's announcement will make a jot of
difference to the medical studies of cannabis.

"Although I appreciate that the medical and recreational use of cannabis
have become somewhat entwined they really should be treated as completely
separate matters," he said.

Dr Notcutt likened the subject to that of the class A drug heroin that can
also be prescribed as a painkiller.

He said that no one talks about heroin as a painkiller, when it is produced
as morphine, in the same breath as heroin as a recreational substance. The
trials into the medicinal use of cannabis are expected to continue for some
time. "Morphine has been around for well over one hundred years and still
tests are being carried out on its uses.

"I expect the same will apply to the use of cannabis in pain relief," said
Dr Notcutt. It is expected, however, that sufferers of debilitating
illnesses who take cannabis for the relief of pain will be much less likely
to face prosecution in the law courts with the drug's new classification.

Last year 51-year-old multiple sclerosis sufferer Thomas Yates, of
Lowestoft, was cleared of cultivating cannabis after a jury at Ipswich
Crown Court accepted his plea that he used the drug to ease his pain. It
was cases such as those involving Mr Yates that put pressure on the
Government to change the current laws on cannabis.

But Mr Blunkett's proposals will not have any effect on people who
cultivate cannabis - an offence which carries a 14-year maximum jail term.
The new maximum sentence for cannabis possession would be two years, if Mr
Blunkett sees through his proposals.

The Home Office said that after reclassification, cannabis possession would
be dealt with by either a caution - which would go on a criminal record -
or by summons, which sees the offender called to magistrates court to face
a possible fine, in the same way that many driving offences are dealt
with. If reclassification of cannabis goes ahead, it would put the whole
country on the same footing as a pilot scheme in south London where police
are "turning a blind eye' to cannabis use.

Since it began in July, officers in Brixton have been dealing with
possession of small amounts by confiscating the drug and issuing a warning
rather than arresting the user, a policy which the Metropolitan Police is
hugely time-saving.

Since the start of the experiment, 218 people have been officially warned
for possession of cannabis, compared with 168 people that were arrested in
the same period last year, but the Metropolitan Police are still evaluating
the six-month pilot scheme.