Subj: UK: Mowlam Supports Tsar On Hard Drugs



Source: The Press Association, UK



Date: February 6, 2000







Mowlam Supports Tsar On Hard Drugs



Cabinet Office Minister Mo Mowlam is backing drugs tsar Keith Hellawell's

demand that police concentrate on the menace of hard drugs rather

than cannabis.



While the focus was on stopping all drugs, Ms Mowlam said: "Obviously the

killer drugs - heroin, cocaine, ecstasy - we're focusing on harder because you

can't do everything at once.



"No one is saying yet that it (cannabis) should be decriminalised or

depenalised."



She added: "I think at the moment what I want to do is work hard at the

strategy we have to see if it could make bigger impact.



"I think before we start changing the strategy we've got, we ought to give a

little longer to see if it works."



Her remarks follow Mr Hellawell's claim that while marijuana should be illegal,

resources should be used to tackle the supply of hard drugs.



He said: "I strongly support the law in relation to cannabis. I believe,

however, that we should focus our attention on drugs which cause the major

harm, which are heroin and cocaine."



Asked on GMTV whether she could ever see reform in the law which makes cannabis

illegal, MsMowlam said: "No, I never cancel anything in or anything out, but at

the moment there are no plans or intentions so to do."



Mr Hellawell, the UK's Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator, told The Observer too many

people were being

convicted for possessing small quantities of the cannabis, at the  expense of

efforts to catch Class A drug dealers.



He said: "We need to discriminate between different drugs and the relative harm

caused and then talk openly about the difference we can make. The focus is

going to be on the drugs that cause the major harm."