A Childhood Vaccine Against Addiction And Drug-Impregnated Clothing Are Part Of Scientists' Visions Of The Future The brains of drug users and alcoholics should be "reprogrammed" to cure them of their addictions, according to leading scientists. This is among the controversial proposals to be put before ministers by experts commissioned to investigate how scientific breakthroughs will affect society in the future. They predict that doctors will be able to help men and women hooked on drugs to unlearn their life-threatening habits by altering the human body's neuro-transmitters, which carry messages around the brain. [continues 949 words]
Alcohol is being blamed as the cause of three out of every four alleged "date rapes" or sexual assaults. The controversial findings of a detailed study into drink-spiking cast doubt over the theory that drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB are a major factor in sex attacks on women. The research has concluded that the majority of victims had drunk alcohol voluntarily, and just under half had chosen to take drugs themselves before the assault took place. Drink-spiking is a growing concern for many women in Britain, but no national figures exist to give a clear picture of whether drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB are a common feature in sexual assaults. More than 754,000 women in the UK over the age of 16 are estimated to have been the victims of rape, but there have been only 15 successful prosecutions for drug-assisted sexual assault in the past five years. [continues 1006 words]
Charles Clarke's intention to review David Blunkett's decision of a year ago to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug has left Britain's five million users, not to mention police, medical experts and politicians, more unclear than ever. Is the government U-turn due to genuine health concerns over the drug's link to mental illness, or has it got more to do with the coming election? Walking through clouds of blue cannabis smoke, the policeman did not know what to do. "You just don't have time to stop everybody, not in a place like this," he said at Camden Lock in north London yesterday. "It's all over the place." [continues 1782 words]
Plans to outlaw magic mushrooms have raised fears of a surge in the use of potentially harmful hallucinogenic herbs and plants. Drugs experts are calling for these legal so-called herbal highs, now widely available on the internet and in high street shops, to carry clear warning labels because inexperienced users mistakenly believe they are safe. These dried or powdered substances include salvia divinorum, a variety of sage which can be smoked. Salvia is not a controlled drug in Britain but has been banned in Italy, Denmark and Australia because it can leave users disoriented. [continues 423 words]
In a bold venture that puts Spain at the forefront of the medical use of cannabis in Europe, 60 pharmacies and four hospitals in Catalonia are to prescribe marijuana for therapeutic use where other treatments have failed. The pioneering scheme surpasses measures taken by the Dutch, leaders in the field, and puts British efforts in the shade. A British drug company has been denied permission to produce medicinal cannabis for trials - because of lack of political will, critics say. Doctors in Catalonia will be able to prescribe cannabis in capsules or as an infusion to help four specific conditions: anorexia among Aids patients; nausea caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients; constant pain - including migraine - that has been unresponsive to other treatments; and muscular problems among those with multiple sclerosis. About 150,000 patients are expected to benefit. [continues 229 words]
Mental health campaigners are calling for a government inquiry into the effects of cannabis one year after the drug was reclassified from Class B to Class C. Yesterday, the mental health charity Rethink said MPs on the health select committee should investigate possible links between cannabis and mental illness after the publication of several studies suggesting an association with psychosis. Cliff Prior, Rethink's chief executive, said the number of people who use drugs and have mental illness has risen by 60 per cent in the past five years. [continues 167 words]
Escalating use of pills and powders will no longer be confined to the young. Sophie Goodchild reports on the coming drug age Not so long ago they got their kicks from a glass of Dubonnet. But British pensioners will soon be routine consumers of recreational drugs, according to a leading government adviser. Professor Gerry Stimson, an authority on drug safety, believes that the ageing drug user, or "silver sniffer", will become a significant figure on the British drugs scene in the next three decades, thanks to the growing popularity of illegal pills and powders. [continues 920 words]
One of the biggest problems faced by governments is drug addiction and the crime it brings with it. The tactics used by the US and many European governments to tackle this problem are similar to those used in military battles and is based on prohibition. Unfortunately, prohibition does not seem to be improving the situation. Former Interpol chief Raymond Kendall has admitted that drug prohibition has failed - in fact he claimed that it has made things worse. In an article in French newspaper Le Monde, Kendall declared the war on drugs lost and said that enforcement policies had failed to protect the world from drugs. The only effective solution was "harm reduction". In 2008, the UN drug conventions policy renewal will take place and Kendall called for Europe to take the lead in a reform policy that has never been seen before. [continues 390 words]
An Industrial Solvent Known As GBL Is Taking Over From Now-Illegal GHB, but the Risk of Overdose Is Enormous A new drug craze sweeping Britain's nightclubs is proving so dangerous that paramedics are being hired to staff recovery rooms at major venues. The drug - known as GBL - is being blamed for an increase in the numbers of clubbers collapsing into a comatose state on the dance floor. The drug, more commonly used as a cleaning fluid or industrial solvent to produce plastics and pesticides, is currently legal despite calls to ban it. It is increasingly replacing the better-known GHB as the drug of choice for clubbers - not least because GHB was made illegal last year and given a class C drug rating, putting it on a par with cannabis and amphetamines. [continues 766 words]
The leading scientist who advised the Government it was safe to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug yesterday called on ministers to change the laws on ecstasy. Professor David Nutt, who is a senior member of the drugs panel which recommended cannabis reclassification, said grouping ecstasy in the same high-risk category as heroin and cocaine was misleading for users. "Ecstasy is not a class A drug. It shouldn't be," said Professor Nutt, of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and chairman of its technical committee that concluded that cannabis did not pose the same risks as other class B drugs. [continues 203 words]
A herbalist who sells cannabis-based medicines to hundreds of multiple sclerosis, Aids and cancer patients is facing jail tomorrow after admitting that he tried to smuggle 25kg of cannabis into Britain from Switzerland. Tony Taylor, who runs an alternative medicine shop and "cannabis dispensary" in King's Cross, London, was arrested at Luton airport in March. He told Customs officers he had bought the cannabis to make specialised medicines for 700 patients, many of whom were referred to him by local GP surgeries and Aids clinics. [continues 385 words]
Chief constables are refusing to sanction new proposals that reduce police powers of arrest against cannabis smokers in a rebellion against the Government. The hardline approach by members of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is expected to lead to huge differences in how cannabis is policed in Britain. It will also cause a schism between regional police forces and the Metropolitan Police, which intends to back plans by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, for officers to arrest cannabis users only in exceptional circumstances. [continues 387 words]
The killing of two US soldiers in Baghdad within 24 hours last week shows how far the US and Britain still have to go to end the chaos gripping the Iraqi capital a month after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Anger is growing among Iraqis at the Allies' failure to restore order in a cityawash with weapons and gangs. Heroin - banned under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship upon pain of hanging - is now being traded in back streets. Residents of Baghdad - a conservative city with a large Shia Muslim population - are complaining that the breakdown in order has accompanied the emergence of some western practices they view as offensive, and which were prohibited, or tightly restricted, under Saddam. [continues 112 words]
George Soros, one of the world's richest men, has funded a new lobby group which will push for more treatment programmes for drug users instead of punishing them with long prison sentences. The Hungarian-born financier has been advised by Mike Trace, the Government's former deputy drugs tsar. One result of their collaboration is the lobby group Forward Thinking on Drugs. The group recently conducted research which concluded that drug use has stabilised in countries that have piloted measures such as needle exchanges, drug consumption rooms, heroin on prescription and public health programmes aimed at improving the health of addicts. [continues 123 words]
High witness: They came (those who remembered to), they marched (well, shuffled) and they smoked. Man did they smoke. It began beside the grey block war memorial to the London Borough of Lambeth's finest, who had given their lives fighting the Kaiser, and it ended up two miles away in a big open space with thousands of new age visionaries, trance-state guitar soloists, pathologically earnest students, the occasional marauding hound off a leash, a fair slice of what used to be called Middle England, and lots - and lots - of cannabis. [continues 1034 words]
Valium -- dubbed "mother's little helper" -- is to be classed in the same category as morphine in moves to tighten controls on anti-anxiety drugs and tranquillisers, campaigners have been told. The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who in opposition called the addiction of an estimated one million Britons to benzodiazepines a "national scandal", is to order a review of the way such drugs are handled and prescribed. Ministers have told campaigners they will reclassify the drugs from Schedule 4 to Schedule 2 to prevent them from being prescribed repeatedly, and to ensure pharmacists keep them locked up. [continues 98 words]
A bunch of leaves can be bought for just UKP3. Now children as young as 14 are becoming addicted to the drug Behind an ordinary black front door on a main road in north London, a dozen or so Somali men of varying ages are sitting on cushions arranged on the floor of a small, unfurnished living room. There is a television in the corner and in front of the men are bags filled with the dark green leaves of the qat plant. Welcome to a typical qat "pub". [continues 770 words]
Children with severe mental health problems are being treated as inpatients alongside hardened drug addicts and alcoholics in adult units. Patients of 14 are being sent to mental health wards following the closure of a pioneering psychiatric unit specialising in treating youngsters. Woodside in Epsom, Surrey, was one of only 80 units helping young people recover from mental health problems including self-harm, depression and eating disorders. However, Surrey Oaklands NHS trust has decided it cannot afford the 12-bed unit. Instead, it has placed at least six teenagers in adult wards, a move branded "totally unacceptable" by mental health campaigners. [continues 282 words]
The Government is to abandon "unrealistic" drug targets, which include halving heroin and cocaine abuse among the young, as part of an overhaul of its anti-drugs strategy. This week, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is also expected to announce increased spending on treatment for users who commit crime to pay for their habit. The number of doctors prescribing drug substitutes will increase. The Home Office will also publish the findings of a study by York University that show the annual cost of drug abuse is nearly UKP19bn - - or UKP11,000 for each seriously addicted heroin and cocaine user. [continues 149 words]
One of the Government's leading drug advisers has called on the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, to downgrade ecstasy to a class B drug. Professor David Nutt, who is on Mr Blunkett's official drug advisory panel, said giving ecstasy the same status as heroin and cocaine misleads young people. "One of the sad things is giving them the message that ecstasy is as dangerous as heroin," said Professor Nutt, who is on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. "Millions of kids every week take ecstasy and it's actually a very safe drug. I'm fully signed up to it being class B." [continues 236 words]
The other night I had a conversation with Paul Dacre, editor of that bastion of Middle England, the Daily Mail The other night I had a conversation with Paul Dacre, editor of that bastion of Middle England, the Daily Mail. Mr Dacre is in despair, which is hardly a surprise. Two of his "rocks" (to coin an emblematic phrase) - the institutions of the Tory party and Royal Family, on which he relies to sell his papers in vast quantities - are in disarray. [continues 990 words]
Cocaine addicts will be treated with special "talking therapies" used to cure the mentally ill, under new plans to be launched by the Government. The National Treatment Agency (NTA), the government body set up to cater for thousands of drug users, will launch a nationwide strategy later this year based on cognitive therapy. Patients addicted to crack and powder cocaine will be encouraged to talk about their problems and to learn coping techniques in an attempt to wean them off the drugs. [continues 432 words]
A teenage girl will be shown injecting heroin into her neck and arm in one of the most harrowing and contentious broadcasts ever shown on British television. Seated on a bed in a dingy room, Michelle Pickthall, 18, is seen breaking the end off a cigarette, dropping it into a bubbling spoon and watching as brown liquid surges into a syringe. Tilting back her head, she winces as the needle enters her neck, before slowly relaxing with a bittersweet sigh. Her actions form the climax of a groundbreaking docu-drama about heroin abuse that combines conventional fly-on-the-wall footage with improvised reconstructions played out by Michelle, fellow addict Shaun Mann, 21, and other residents of their Middlesbrough neighbourhood. [continues 699 words]
The price of the drug ecstasy has fallen to a record low of UKP1.25 for a tab - about the same as a medium-sized bar of chocolate. New statistics show that the cost of the drug has more than halved across the country. The average street price is now UKP3 for a tablet compared with UKP6.24 last year. However, in certain parts of the country dealers have dropped their prices even lower to just over UKP1, especially in the north west of England. [continues 218 words]
Police forces around England and Wales are revolting against changes in the law on cannabis introduced by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, whom they accuse of creating confusion. Some are even saying they will ignore his order for a "softly, softly" approach to the drug and, instead, plan to prosecute offenders to the limit of the law in all cases While the Metropolitan Police and its experiment of tolerating cannabis use in Lambeth has captured headlines, the softly, softly approach is anathema to police forces across parts of the country. The result is a "postcode lottery", with different forces applying different approaches to the policing of the law. [continues 348 words]
Where are we exactly with this cannabis thing? The drug will be downgraded from Class B to a Class C by July 2003. The police are to expand Brixton's controversial "seize and warn" policy across London by the autumn. Does that mean I can sit on the steps of Brixton police station and skin up? No. It will still be illegal to possess cannabis and users can still be arrested for "aggravating factors" such as the involvement of children or "flagrant disregard" of the law. For simple possession the police are more likely to seize the drug and issue a warning. [continues 203 words]
North Ormesby is bleak. Houses are boarded up, cars burnt out and used needles scattered in the road and on the pavements. But next door to the baby clinic in this Middlesbrough suburb, a GP has opened a pioneering practice that he believes will revolutionise the treatment of Britain's 300,000 heroin and cocaine addicts. With David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, staking the future success of his drugs policy on an extra UKP183m to be spent on the treatment of addicts, blamed for Britain's current crime wave, Dr Ian Guy's new scheme will be eagerly assessed. [continues 545 words]
The Independent on Sunday was the first national newspaper to campaign for the legalisation of cannabis. So we give David Blunkett a single cheer for announcing that cannabis users will no longer be automatically charged. But he has sent out conflicting signals. Under his latest proposals, dealers face even tougher penalties, while police will still be able to arrest people for possessing cannabis "where public order is threatened". So what is the Government's overall message? The Home Secretary appears to be suggesting simultaneously that cannabis is more harmful than alcohol, and that it is no more harmful than alcohol. [continues 171 words]
David Blunkett is expected to announce a compromise to his police reforms this week in an attempt to silence critics. The Home Office admitted last night that "more work" needed to be done to an important part of the Police Bill that would give ministers power to impose action plans on failing police forces. Mr Blunkett is reported to have held secret talks with Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, to discuss a compromise. The proposal has been criticised as undermining the long-standing principle that chief constables operate independently of the Government. [continues 216 words]
The head of the Metropolitan Police's gun crime task force is calling for a minimum five-year jail sentence for the increasing numbers of young men who carry guns as a "fashion accessory". Commander Alan Brown, head of Operation Trident which targets black-on-black gun crime, said wielding a gun had far more lethal consequences than drug-dealing but carried a much softer penalty. The current "derisory" nine-month sentence for gun possession was partly to blame for the rise in the number of muggings carried out at gunpoint. [continues 350 words]
Police will retain the power to arrest cannabis users to protect children, under reforms to be announced this week by David Blunkett. The Home Secretary was consulting ministers this weekend on his final plans to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug, which will abolish police powers of arrest in most cases. The police warned that total abolition could lead to humiliation of the police by drug users. Kate Hoey, a former minister, led Labour backbench criticism of the experiment in Brixton of a ''softly-softly'' approach to cannabis. Residents said it had made the streets more unsafe. [continues 92 words]
When cannabis campaigners set out to get themselves arrested they wanted to highlight what they consider to be the ludicrous and draconian nature of Britain's drugs laws. They did the job admirably. The prosecution of 29 cannabis campaigners, who were caught in possession of as little as UKP1 worth of the drug, is likely to cost a staggering UKP1m. The final bill may be even higher. Among those charged are two Euro MPs. The remarkable campaign follows a series of raids on Britain's first Amsterdam-style cannabis café, which opened last year in Stockport, Greater Manchester. [continues 964 words]
Commander Brian Paddick, Britain's most senior openly gay police officer, has accused journalists of trying to entrap him using salacious emails. And he believes that other gay and lesbian police officers will now think twice about coming out, having witnessed what has happened to him. He makes the claims in an interview with Gay Times magazine, which may be the last he gives for some time. It is understood Scotland Yard has put a gagging order on the commander, who has been transferred to other duties from his post as head of Lambeth police, pending an investigation into allegations of drug-taking, made against him by his ex-lover.The commander says he has been sent obscene emails via the alternative website urban75.com. "One was from a guy who claimed to work in the City," Mr Paddick said. "He said I seemed to like the sort of man who would have sex, no questions asked. [continues 81 words]
Shock figures show just 326,000 convicted for 5.2 million crimes Millions of crimes are going unpunished each year and tens of millions of pounds spent in the justice system are being wasted, according to a damning report from the Government's spending watchdog. The Audit Commission will reveal tomorrow that only 326,000 offenders were convicted between 2000 and 2001 despite police recording 5.2 million offences. Around UKP80m is wasted each year through adjournments and cancellations of trials. [continues 402 words]
Every school in Britain has a drugs problem, according to two leading headteachers' unions. John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Headteachers' Association, said yesterday: "Any school that doesn't think it has a drugs problem doesn't know its children." Peter Walker, adviser on drugs to the National Association of Headteachers, said: "You show me a head teacher that says they haven't got a drug problem and I will show you a liar. I mean infant schools, primary schools and secondary schools." [continues 339 words]
New Met Taskforce Will Focus On 'Middle-Tier' Dealers, As MPs Are Set To Recommend Downgrading Ecstasy And Cannabis London is now the cocaine capital of the world with drug squads failing to curb the flow of the drug into Britain, according to the head of the Metropolitan police's drug directorate. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller, one of the Met's highest-ranking officers, blamed London's financial institutions for fuelling the market and called for more compulsory drug testing in City firms. [continues 606 words]
A former addict said yesterday that drugs should not be legalised, just days before the Commons Home Affairs Committee will call for the downgrading of ecstasy and cannabis. Earlier this month Roger Dorrington was ordered by a court to pay UKP 250 compensation to James White, who he alleges dealt heroin to his sons Joseph and Nick. Mr Dorrington had punched Mr White during an angry confrontation. The penalty was withdrawn last week after a public outcry, but Mr Dorrington must still complete 100 hours of community service. [continues 305 words]
Cannabis should have the same status as Valium but possession must remain a criminal offence, an influential committee of MPs has said. An enquiry into Britain's drugs laws by the Home Affairs Select Committee will conclude that decriminalisation of the drug would send out the wrong message and lead to an increase in supply. Full legalisation of cannabis - a step further - will also be explicitly rejected by the committee in its report, which will recommend reclassifying the drug from Class B to Class C. [continues 154 words]
Sorry to disappoint all you dope smokers out there, but marijuana legalisation isn't something I get worked up about. If it's legalised, fine. If it isn't, so be it. So why was I sitting in the waiting room at the Institute of Neurology on Monday, desperately hoping that I'd get free dope from the cannabis-in-multiple sclerosis trial? I can tell you that it wasn't in the hope of getting a safe supply of Lebanese White Widow. It never did much for me. [continues 690 words]
Mo Mowlam has called for all recreational drugs - including cocaine, ecstasy and heroin - to be legalised and taxed. The former cabinet minister, who was responsible for anti-drugs policy, says prohibition is not working. Speaking to The Independent on Sunday before the launch of her autobiography, she said: "I am arguing for legalising all drugs because I don't think there is any other way. You have to take the financial nexus out of it. If you can do that, you can pay people to produce it, as they do with tobacco, and tax it. [continues 141 words]
The world has long been aware that every third person in Tunbridge Wells is an apoplectic retired major. The fact that much the same proportion of the town's citizens are now itinerant drug-users has been rather less publicised. (The major's apoplectic because he's tripped over five of them on the way to the Post Office.) This news was brought to the public's attention by a well-to-do mother of four, Theresa Dodd, who has seen three of her daughters fall prey to heroin addiction. I can't say I was startled by her revelations. As far back as the mid-Eighties, when I was hanging out there, Tunbridge Wells was a Mecca for drugs. A boy I was crazy in love with for a while was a regular on the scene. It seems fortunate, looking back, that I was so easily contented with pints of snakebite. Indeed, the only certain reason I never took heroin is that I was never offered any. Had I been cajoled at a vulnerable moment who knows? [continues 567 words]
Brixton will become a draw for drug tourists if plans to open three Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes in the area win approval. Tim Summers, a Brixton resident and legalisation campaigner, wants cafes to be licensed for the sale and consumption of cannabis as they are in Holland. He envisages three cafes, one run by Rastafarians, another catering for the hippie community, and a central take-away outlet, open long hours "to serve Brixton and London's massive needs". Cannabis would be sold only in quantities of less than 30 grams, to over-18s. The scheme would require Home Office approval and further changes to the law. "Prohibition is rotten. It is hated and despised," says Mr Summers. "We will soon see the days of cannabis prohibition ended forever." [end]
Once Cannabis Is Reclassified, We Must Have A Proper Debate On All Intoxicants Just to get this out of the way: I am not one of those people who is soft on drugs. I believe that the rise of illegal drug use is one of the most corrosive changes in our society during my lifetime. In many developing countries, ruthless drug cartels control agriculture, the economy and politics. Drug supply is a major criminal activity in the developed world, while the demand for drugs fuels much of our lower-level crime. The full cost of drug use in Britain, in terms of policing, crime, health care, and social impact, is incalculable. We all grieve for the young lives that have been ruined or lost because of illegal drugs. [continues 1165 words]
Kiss-And-Tell Threat To Met's Paddick Britain's most senior openly gay police officer was fighting to save his career last night following lurid kiss-and-tell allegations by a former partner. Metropolitan Police commander Brian Paddick, whose future had been put in doubt over comments about anarchism on a radical website, told The Independent on Sunday yesterday of gross and false accusations being made by his spurned ex-lover. Mr Paddick, who pioneered the softly, softly approach to cannabis in the London borough of Lambeth, is now alleged to have smoked the drug. He is also being accused of engaging in explicit sexual activity. The allegations, which he vehemently denies, are by his former partner James Renolleau, a cashier who worked at Westminster Abbey. Mr Renolleau has now fled the country. [continues 540 words]
The Government will face mounting pressure this week to review the laws on cannabis with the publication of two new studies backing reclassification of the drug. The Police Foundation, a research charity whose patron is Prince Charles, and the Metropolitan Police are both expected to reveal overwhelming public support for relaxed policing of the drug. Their findings are based on the results of a six-month pilot scheme in Lambeth, south London, where police warned cannabis users instead of arresting them. [continues 483 words]
Nine o'clock on Friday night and Brixton high street is buzzing. Everyone is on their way home or on their way out for the night. But just a minute's walk away, in Coldharbour Lane, there is another group of people who are not going anywhere: the dealers. Hoods up against the cold, they lean against shuttered shop fronts and railings, checking out the passers-by. Coldharbour Lane has always been the place to go in Brixton if you want to buy drugs. Since last summer, the drug trade has become a lot more visible. In a 100-yard stretch, there are at least 20 people carrying out "business". [continues 257 words]
Relax Law, Say Government Advisers; Reform Would Be First For 30 Years; Lib Dems Vote For Legalisation David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will be told this week by his official panel of drug advisers to downgrade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug. The change, which would enable users to smoke a joint in the street without fear of arrest, would be the first relaxation of drug laws in Britain for 30 years. Yesterday, in a separate initiative, the Liberal Democrats became the first major political party to vote for the full legalisation of cannabis. They also voted for an end to prison sentences for those caught in possession of other drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy and heroin, and called for ecstasy to be downgraded from a Class A to a Class B drug. [continues 604 words]
It seemed so daring when 'The Independent on Sunday' began its campaign to decriminalise cannabis. Simon O'Hagan reflects on how public and political opposition went up in smoke We have come a long way since police raided Ringo Starr's London flat in the late 1960s and emerged triumphant with one and a half ounces of cannabis. As the Beatles generation has grown up to be the leaders of today, the use of cannabis has become so normalised, its effects long now revealed to be so much less damaging than the establishment's scaremongers would have had us believe, that decriminalisation has become almost inevitable. [continues 800 words]
Liberal Democrats yesterday voted for the most radical drug policy of any mainstream political party by voting to legalise the use of marijuana and end jail sentencesfor possession of all other drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy and heroin. The supply and use of cannabis should be legalised and regulated, the party decided, opening the door to an Amsterdam-style "coffee shop'' culture in Britain. Prosecution for growing cannabis for personal use should be abolished and adults who supply "spliffs'' to their friends should not be charged, the party decided yesterday. Drugs such as ecstasy should be reclassified from Class A to Class B. [continues 309 words]
The Government's drug advisers are set to call for the legal downgrading of cannabis - a step which will mean that possession of the drug will no longer be an arrestable offence. This was one of the key demands of this newspaper's campaign for decriminalisation. Reclassification of cannabis to a class C drug is the first step towards a more enlightened approach to drugs in Britain. When we began our campaign, it was widely deemed daring or even dangerous. It is heartening how quickly the national debate on drugs has matured. What was then seen as a minority view now has the support of a Home Secretary not otherwise known for liberal tendencies and a substantial number of senior figures in both opposition parties. Even an initially sceptical Tony Blair has been won over by David Blunkett's arguments that too much police time and money is wasted pursuing cannabis users. [continues 232 words]
