MAKING A COHERENT POLICY ON DRUGS

I AM as surprised as I am pleased that hard-line Home Secretary David
Blunkett believes possession of cannabis should no longer be an arrestable
offence. This is a step in the right direction and long overdue.

People who smoke cannabis are not criminals. They choose a recreational
drug that very rarely kills and whose social ill-effects are tiny compared
to alcohol and tobacco.

In my time reporting from magistrates' courts I never heard a defendant
accused of violence plead he was under the influence of ganja.

Booze is infinitely more dangerous, so it is right the government has
downgraded dope as a threat to society.

One day, perhaps, New Labour will go the whole hog and decriminalise
cannabis completely. There is something barmy about a law that says you can
drink beer but nobody can legally brew it. The change in the law will
continue to throw up anomalies of this kind. However, the police will
welcome it.

Two thirds of drug busts are related to cannabis. It is a waste of their
time and our money.

Instead of lifting dopeheads, they can get on with the serious business of
catching real criminals.

The big task now for ministers is to construct a coherent policy on drugs
relevant to the world we live in, not the fantasy world of anti-drugs fanatics.

Joint-up government, if you like.

The Home Secretary should now move on to the next stage of drugs strategy,
preparing public opinion for the decriminalisation of cannabis and a more
mature policy on heroin.

Let's listen to doctors, not moralists.