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UK: Drug czar says laws will not change

The Times

Wednesday 10 Jan 2001

Ministers will reject calls to decriminalise cannabis when they respond to a groundbreaking report on drug policy, Keith Hellawell, the anti-drugs co-ordinator, said today.

Dame Ruth Runciman called for a cut in penalties for cannabis, ecstasy and LSD in the report of a Police Foundation inquiry she chaired last year.

Ministers have yet to reply to her report and Dame Ruth today repeated her warning that the Government could not afford to ignore the debate over drugs. But Mr Hellawell, who has been asked to examine the report, insisted the law would not change.

Dame Ruth said: "Our drug laws need some review after 30 years to make them more accurate, more enforceable and fairer."

Penalties have to be proportionate to the risk of the drug, she told the BBC.

Mr Hellawell said ministers had rejected these findings when the report was published last year, and their stance had not changed.

Yesterday, Tony Blair repeated his view that he should examine the issue as a parent as well as a Prime Minister, and did not think laws should change.

 

 

 

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