Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 Source: Sunday Times (UK) Copyright: 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. Contact: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/439 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) SOFT OPTION ON DRUGS The deaths of two young men after an all-night London "rave" last week led police to make what was an extraordinary comment. They said the dead ravers had "normal" levels of ecstasy - a class A drug - in their bodies and had probably been killed by heat stroke and not a contaminated batch of drugs. The superintendent in charge said youngsters who go to raves should take lots of water, relax in cool-down areas and take advice on "safer drug use". There had been no change in the law, he stressed. Narcotics were "still illegal". Really? That is what Tony Blair would like us to believe, and the statute book supports him. But the truth is that the law is no longer enforced in many parts of Britain. Police chiefs in London and elsewhere have decided that prosecuting people caught with small quantities of drugs, especially class B "soft" drugs, is no longer worth the trouble. They say it takes an inordinate amount of time and weakens their drive against serious crimes, which are the real cause of public disquiet. So the police have decided their time is better spent combating the spread of class A hard drugs and the use of knives, guns, street robbery and burglary, much of which is drug-related. What's the point, they ask, of spending thousands of pounds of police time taking young people found with cannabis to court when all the magistrates do is fine the offenders an average of =A345? They are now going to run an experiment in south London's multiracial Brixton area, where young people will be ticked off instead of prosecuted. If it works, other parts of Britain can be expected to follow suit. Did anybody tell the prime minister? No 10's response to the police decision in Brixton is to say there are no plans to decriminalise or declassify cannabis. Indeed, Mr Blair laid great stress last week on the government's decision to tighten the bail restrictions on people who take drugs or deal in them. By that, he meant suspects arrested for serious offences who are found to be drug users, even if the drug is cannabis. That leaves us with the position, which those who believe in "zero tolerance" must find absurd, of police going easy on cannabis users who do not commit other offences while taking a much tougher line on those who do. But zero tolerance of all drugs has had its day, as Ann Widdecombe learnt to her cost when she proposed it at the last Conservative conference. The middle class does not want its children criminalised for possession and is confused about the seriousness of the offence. It was easier when experts insisted that cannabis abuse frequently led to cocaine and heroin addiction. That is no longer the case. Keith Hellawell, the government's globe-trotting drug czar, has done a somersault and now doubts whether cannabis is the gateway to harder drugs. No wonder the war against drugs is being lost; some say it already has been. We cannot afford the law to be made an ass in this area. Too many lives are blighted and too many families are destroyed by drugs. London's drug trade is reckoned to be the city's third-biggest business after finance and tourism. Billions of pounds gush around the criminal circuits that control the trafficking. Scotland's drug enforcement agency busted 50 gangs last year, but nobody claims it makes much difference. The present strategy is in disarray. David Davis, a Tory leadership candidate, has already called for an open debate and the government should respond. It dismissed the Runciman report urging a new approach, but the case for radical thinking is growing and may soon be irresistible. Legalised cannabis would do more to disrupt gangs that monopolise drug supplies than any current legislation. Quality controls could be imposed, and a more persuasive campaign could be launched against drug abuse. That has to be balanced against still genuine fears that it would lead to wider use of those harder drugs. Either way, Mr Blair must accept that liberalisation by stealth of soft drugs is not the answer. The government needs to make up its mind. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe