Pubdate: Wed, 22 May 2002
Source: Yorkshire Post (UK)
Contact:  2002 Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd
Website: http://yorkshirepost.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2239
Author: Brendan Carlin

LABOUR IN DISARRAY OVER DRUG CRACKDOWN

Determined efforts by Tony Blair's government to crack down on the evil of 
drugs were yesterday thrown into confusion after a Labour-dominated Commons 
committee called for the downgrading of Ecstasy.

Home Secretary David Blunkett was forced to issue an immediate rejection of 
the House of Commons' home affairs committee recommendation that the 
potentially deadly dance drug be downgraded from a Class A to Class B.

But in its long-awaited report on Britain's drug laws, the committee also 
controversially concluded that drug use was a "passing phase" for many 
young people which "rarely results in any long-term harm".

They also called for more prescribing of medical-grade heroin on the NHS 
and suggested that safe injecting rooms or so-called "shooting galleries" - 
where addicts can use illegally-purchased drugs without being arrested - 
should be tried out "without delay" to get heroin users off the street.

The findings, endorsed by seven Labour MPs including Bradford West's Marsha 
Singh, two Tories and a Liberal Democrat, appeared to contradict a new 
crackdown on juvenile drug-taking by Education Secretary Estelle Morris.

Yesterday she unveiled plans for drug dealers selling to schoolchildren to 
be jailed up to five years longer than the current maximum. The Government 
is also making available to all schools a hard-hitting video on drugs, 
entitled Rachel's Story, featuring the drug-ravaged corpse of 21-year-old 
Rachel Whitear who died two years ago.

Last night, Tory MP Angela Watkinson, the only home affairs committee 
member to oppose the report, angrily accused her colleagues of sending 
precisely the wrong message on drugs and blunting the Education Secretary's 
initiative.

And Janet Betts, whose daughter Leah died in 1995 after taking Ecstasy at 
her 18th birthday party, said the committee was "totally misinformed".

But there was also doubt over the Education Secretary's call yesterday for 
any children caught dealing drugs on school premises to be expelled even if 
it was their first offence.

Bev Marshall, Yorkshire regional officer for teachers' union NUT, insisted 
headteachers should decide whether pupils were automatically expelled in 
that situation.

And Simon Gardner, deputy director of education in Hull, said that, under 
existing law, school governing bodies made those decisions, warning: "I 
don't think it is helpful for people to be seen to interfere in that 
decision-making."

Last October, Mr Blunkett was himself accused of sending the wrong message 
over drugs when he surprisingly called for cannabis to be downgraded to a 
Class C drug - the same category as steroids and prescription tranquillisers.

That proposal was yesterday endorsed by the home affairs' committee in its 
new report entitled: The Government's Drugs Policy - Is It Working?.

But the committee, chaired by former Labour minister Chris Mullin, went 
further and said Ecstasy should be listed as a Class B drug alongside 
amphetamines and barbiturates, rather than alongside heroin and cocaine in 
Class A.

They cited Police Foundation evidence that "although deaths from Ecstasy 
are highly publicised, it probably kills fewer than 10 people each year 
which, though deeply distressing for the surviving relatives and friends, 
is a small percentage of the many thousands of people who use it each week".

The Foundation also cast doubt on whether the deaths were actually caused 
by the drug as opposed to over-crowding in dance clubs, overheating and the 
high cost of drinks.

The MPs stressed that "nothing should be done to imply that the taking of 
Ecstasy is harmless, legal or socially desirable. Ecstasy is a dangerous drug".

But they insisted it should be reclassified to category B which would still 
carry a maximum 14-year jail sentence for supply and possession with intent 
to supply as opposed to life imprisonment for a Class A substance.

The committee's move forced the Home Secretary to take the unusual step of 
issuing an immediate rejection of the committee's recommendation.

Mr Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside, said: "Ecstasy can, and does, 
kill unpredictably and there is no such thing as a safe dose. I believe it 
should remain Class A." In rejecting another committee recommendation, he 
also said he had "no plans" to introduce a pilot programme of 
safe-injecting rooms for heroin addicts although he confirmed he wanted to 
see "an appropriate extension" of prescribing heroin.

But Mr Blunkett, who said he had last October called for a "sensible and 
adult debate" on tackling drug misuse, praised MPs for producing a 
"thorough and thought-provoking report".

He singled out the committee's conclusion that policy should focus on 
dealing with the 250,000 drug-users who posed the problems, rather than the 
"large numbers whose drug use poses no serious threat either to their own 
well-being or to that of others".

The MPs also said "legal drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol, are 
responsible for far greater damage to individual health and to the social 
fabric in general than illegal ones".

It concluding that "if there is any single lesson from the experience of 
the last 30 years, it is that policies based wholly or mainly on 
enforcement are destined to fail".

The MPs acknowledged that the day might come when "the balance may tip in 
favour of legalising and regulating some presently illegal drugs".

And they added: "Harm reduction rather than retribution should be the 
primary focus of policy towards users of illegal drugs."

But Mrs Watkinson, Tory MP for Uxbridge, angrily hit out at her colleagues.

Setting up a network of heroin shooting galleries was "colluding in 
maintaining life-long drug habits" when treatment of addicts should be 
based on abstaining from the drug, she told the Yorkshire Post.

However, official Tory reaction was more muted with Shadow Home Secretary 
Oliver Letwin saying: "Like the Government, we will consider the report in 
detail as part of our general policy review."
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MAP posted-by: Alex