Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jul 2002
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Melissa Kite, Political Correspondent

DUNCAN SMITH'S DRUGS VISIT BACKFIRES

An attempt by Iain Duncan Smith to draw attention to the Conservatives' 
hard line on drugs with a visit to Brixton in South London backfired 
yesterday when he was jeered by community workers handpicked by party 
officials.

The Tory leader had intended to demonstrate the strength of opposition to 
plans to be announced by David Blunkett today to downgrade cannabis and put 
it in the same category as steroids and anti-depressants. Mr Duncan Smith 
told reporters before his visit that the "softly, softly" attitude to the 
drug, which had been police policy in South London since last July, had 
left the people of Brixton feeling betrayed and used.

When he arrived at Brixton Baptist Church, it did not look as if the 
assembled group would disagree. Arranged in a small circle in the ante-room 
of the church were seven elderly women, two women under 60 -- one of them a 
vicar -- and a male youth worker.

Unfortunately, several of the women admitted that they did not know who Mr 
Duncan Smith was, while the youth worker turned out to be a Liberal 
Democrat Party member and a convinced advocate of the soft drugs policy 
that Mr Duncan Smith had come to criticise.

To make matters worse, when Mr Duncan Smith began to speak, Shane Collins, 
the Green Party's drugs spokesman, shouted abuse from the back of the room 
as Tory officials struggled to silence him.

Mr Duncan Smith said: "This is not a party political issue. It is an issue 
that affects everyone of all parties." But the youth worker, Huey Rose, 32, 
told him: "Why have you been so late to come down to Brixton? What is the 
Conservative Party's intention coming here now? "Why didn't you come 
before, why didn't you come and meet with the black community? Many times 
when black people have cried out to the Conservative Party there has not 
been a listening ear for the black youth."

There were shouts and gestures of approval from the more elderly members of 
the group when Mr Rose said: "Police time is being wasted -- they are 
spending three or four hours on a cannabis suspect when they could be 
concentrating on the harder drugs."

Mr Duncan Smith was accompanied by Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home 
Secretary, who was one of eight shadow ministers two years ago to admit 
that they had experimented with cannabis in their youth.

Mr Letwin drew a blank when he questioned the assembled group. He asked one 
mother: "Have you come across a situation where young people go from soft 
to hard drugs." She replied: "No, that doesn't happen."

After twenty minutes, the television cameras and reporters were asked to 
leave. Mr Duncan Smith said: "It is a bit restricting to have the press 
around."

Afterwards, Mr Duncan Smith insisted that the people he had met had 
supported his policy of a tougher line on cannabis dealing. "My point is it 
is quite wrong, surely, to hand over your drugs policy to criminal youths 
on the streets," he said.

Mr Blunkett's expected announcement on cannabis was criticised by a senior 
Labour peer yesterday. Lord Warner, the chairman of the Youth Justice 
Board, said that the Government had failed to explain the long-term danger 
to health posed by the drug.

He said that the health implications of cannabis use had not been debated 
as much as they should be. Lord Warner published a report which said that 
half of young offenders had used the drug, and that availability of drugs 
was an important factor leading to youth offending.

"I would hope that the medical evidence on prolonged use of cannabis could 
be put more in the public arena and debated more," he said.

"Cannabis is in large part a health issue, and what are the longer-term 
consequences of many of those youngsters taking large amounts of cannabis 
during their development years?"
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