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UK: There is no plan to change law, says Downing Street
Roland Watson The Times
Tuesday 10 Jul 2001 DOWNING STREET has quashed suggestions that Tony Blair is preparing to relax the law on cannabis use. Less than 24 hours after David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, called for an "adult, intelligent, debate" on the issue, the Prime Minister's spokesman insisted that there was no change of policy in the pipeline. And whereas Mr Blunkett solicited contributions to thoughtful dialogue, No. 10 appeared markedly less interested in joining in. Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "There's clearly a debate going on about cannabis, and that's fine." Striking a notably different tone from the Home Secretary, the spokesman said: "Of course there's always room for different debates in any democracy. We are perfectly relaxed about that. But often when people say they are calling for a debate, that's shorthand for saying they want to legalise cannabis. But the Government's policy remains. There are no plans to decriminalise cannabis." The firm comments were designed to halt any suggestions that ministers were prepared to loosen Britain's drug laws, following recent high-profile calls for a review. Mo Mowlam, the former Cabinet Office Minister, and Keith Hellawell, the Government's anti-drugs co-ordinator, have both accepted in recent weeks that cannabis does not necessarily lead to the use of harder drugs. Mr Blunkett's comments on Sunday appeared to chime with a more open-minded approach to the drugs laws when he said that he was interested in the current debate. He said that he would not change policy "out of the blue" but was interested in hearing contributions, a note sufficiently divergent from his predecessor, Jack Straw, to suggest that there had been a change in government thinking. Downing Street took any momentum out of the issue by insisting that Mr Blunkett had not been out of line with government thinking. "What David was saying was, of course, there's room for a debate. But it's a bit of a leap to go from there to say that the Government plans to change the drugs laws. We don't," a spokesman said. He stopped short of guaranteeing that there would be no changes introduced in drugs laws during the lifetime of the current Parliament, but instead repeated the official line that there would be no move without new scientific evidence to back up any future relaxation. The spokesman said that nothing said so far has changed the view that "the drugs laws as they are drawn up are right".
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