Pubdate: Wed, 22 May 2002
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Telegraph Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author: Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

BLUNKETT TO KEEP ECSTASY CLASS A

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, rejected a recommendation from MPs last 
night that ecstasy should be downgraded from a Class A to a Class B drug.

A report from the Commons home affairs select committee, published today, 
says ecstasy - a drug popular among the young in dance clubs - should be 
reclassified to attract a lesser jail sentence.

Although the MPs insist they are not condoning use of the drug, which 
killed 36 people last year, they consider it less harmful than other Class 
A substances such as heroin and crack cocaine.

Placing it in a lower category would put it alongside barbiturates, 
amphetamines and - for now - cannabis.

"We have to recognise that many young people will continue to use drugs," 
says the report. "In most cases this is a passing phase which they will 
grow out of . . . It makes sense to give priority to educating [them] in 
harm minimisation rather than prosecuting them."

But Mr Blunkett said the idea - effectively the one radical proposal from 
the first parliamentary inquiry into drugs policy - was "not on the 
Government's agenda".

He added: "Ecstasy can, and does kill unpredictably and there is no such 
thing as a safe dose. I believe it should remain Class A."

Mr Blunkett also ruled out the committee's suggestion that "safe" injecting 
houses, the so-called "shooting galleries" that exist elsewhere in Europe, 
should be opened.

For their part, the MPs supported Mr Blunkett's plan - announced last 
October - to reclassify cannabis from B to C, making its possession a 
non-arrestable offence.

The necessary legal changes are expected within the next few months. The 
Government also intends to allow the medicinal use of cannabis following 
trials.

The inquiry - which claimed to have tackled an area "where British 
politicians have feared to tread" - rejected calls for the 
decriminalisation or legalisation of drugs that are currently unlawful.

The report accepts that "the ready availability of illegal drugs is 
sustaining a vast criminal industry" and that the policy of the past 30 
years has failed. But the MPs do not believe the time is right for dramatic 
changes.

"We acknowledge that there is force behind some of those arguments advanced 
in favour of legalising and regulating. The criminal market might well be 
diminished [though not eliminated]; likewise drug-related crime.

"Harm may well be reduced, although this would have to be balanced against 
an inevitable increase in the number of drug abusers if drugs were more 
widely and cheaply available."

But the MPs add: "We agree with those who say that legalisation would send 
the wrong message to the overwhelming majority of young people who do not 
take drugs."

Other recommendations include: a new offence of "supply for gain" to 
prosecute large scale commercial suppliers; an increase in treatment places 
for cocaine users; an emphasis in education material that drug use is 
harmful and should be discouraged; the universal availability of methadone 
treatments to heroin addicts.
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MAP posted-by: Jackl