INJECTING COMMON SENSE

Reducing Harm Is The Right Drug Target

Three important changes to make our anti-drugs laws more coherent and less
contradictory were signalled yesterday.

Belatedly, Labour has begun to recognise the damage which current laws on
the misuse of drugs are wreaking.

Where Jack Straw refused to tread, David Blunkett has boldly moved.

Cannabis is to be downgraded from B to C class, making it a minor
non-arrestable offence. He also signalled his support for wider use of
cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Thirdly, and most boldly, he will promote wider use of prescribing for
heroin addicts.

The reclassification of cannabis is not just an issue for the chattering
classes.

It will affect tens of thousands of young people across all classes.

He need have no fear of protests from either the public or police.

Opinion polls show widespread public support: 60% believe cannabis should
no longer be treated as a criminal offence and 99% place arrests for
cannabis possession in the lowest police priority. Public criticism does
not stop there.

Parents are acutely aware that a war on drugs, while cannabis is still
illegal, is a war on their children.

Up to 50% try the drug. There were at least 2.5m users last year. Police
chiefs have a different objection: the diversion of police time. Of 300,000
people stopped and searched in an average year, 90,000 are found to be in
possession of cannabis. It takes one police officer at least three hours to
process the paperwork for each of these arrests.

Where Mr Blunkett falls short is in failing to downgrade LSD and Ecstasy
from A to B class, as recommended last year by the Police Foundation's
national commission, and rejecting its suggestion that possession of B and
C drugs should be made non-imprisonable. The reason was pragmatic: prison
does far more harm than good.

The main conclusion of the commission was that the 30-year-old law on drugs
misuse, which was passed to categorise drugs by harmfulness, no longer
reflected scientific, medical or sociological findings.

They liked the framework but sensibly wanted the classification to be based
on the latest evidence, rather than outdated prejudices.

The goal was a reduction in harm. The new move on heroin is in line with
this aim.

Heroin was once widely prescribed by GPs, which meant there was little
business for drug dealers and ensured addicts received uncontaminated drugs.

The home secretary is right to try and restore the old order.

It was safer and more humane.