Britain will ease its cannabis laws but crack down on hard drugs - a move
that has strengthened calls for similar reform in New Zealand.

The British rethink, announced yesterday, will re-classify cannabis from
early next year so it is treated the same way as anabolic steroids and
anti-depressants such as Temazepam.

Most people caught with the drug will get off with a warning and the loss
of their stash, although possession will still be technically illegal.

Police will continue to clamp down on cannabis suppliers.

New Zealanders cannabis law reformers hailed the British move, but
opponents believe more young people could use the drug if laws were eased.

The Daily Telegraph said British Home Secretary David Blunkett also
indicated that the Government would allow cannabis to be used as a medicine.

He said police spent valuable time chasing soft-drug cannabis crime, even
though hard drugs were a much bigger worry. So it made sense to ease
cannabis laws so police could focus on drugs such as heroin.

One spur for the change came from a trial period in South London where
police attacked hard drugs and street crime rather than cannabis.

In New Zealand, a health select committee looking into cannabis law and
public policy is expected to release a report within five months.

Green Party drug policy spokesman Nandor Tanczos said the British move had
"huge implications" for New Zealand and other nations with
Westminster-based systems, "especially in the context of increased
methamphetamine use here."

"The thrust is to free police and focus on the manufacture and supply of
hard drugs," he said.

Chris Fowlie, president of the National Organisation for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, said the two countries that New Zealand looked to most,
Britain and Australia, were easing their approaches to cannabis.

That should point the way for the select committee, he said.

But the chairman of Drug Abuse Resistance Education, Phil Silva, said his
group would back the present law until it was proved that reform would
benefit young people.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor told the select committee that
the present cannabis laws should be retained.

He said the association believed more people would use cannabis if laws
were eased.

The drug was not as widely used as some surveys indicated.

Police mostly came across cannabis while probing other crimes such as
burglary, said Mr O'Connor.

Jon Neilson, a spokesman for the Police Commissioner's office, said police
were waiting for the select committee report.

Until then, police had no official view on cannabis law.

Justice Minister Phil Goff last month issued figures showing that the
average age of people convicted for cannabis crime had risen in the last 20
years and the number of Maori caught possessing the drug had doubled.

The average age of people convicted for possession rose from 23 to 28 and
the age of people convicted for dealing went from 24 to 31.

During the same time, the number of Maori convicted for possession soared
from 517 each year to 1106, but Pakeha numbers dropped from 1997 to 1350.

Mr Goff said police spent 298,000 hours investigating cannabis crime during
the 1999/2000 year.