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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Heroin addicts 'all started off with cannabis'
Sarah Womack The Telegraph
Wednesday 31 Oct 2001 KEITH HELLAWELL, the former drugs "tsar", told MPs yesterday that every heroin addict he had met started their substance abuse with cannabis. His remarks to the Commons home affairs committee undermined Government proposals to relax laws covering cannabis. Last week Mr Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said cannabis possession would no longer be an arrestable offence. The aim was to free police to concentrate on harder drugs and improve current legislation so it would "make more sense" to people on the street. But Mr Hellawell said he still believed that cannabis was a "gateway drug" to harder substances. Mr Hellawell was appointed in 1998 to develop Government policy on drugs, but lasted only three-and-a-half years before being moved to a two-day-a-week advisory role. He told the committee he had struggled from the start in a job that had "no power base and no support", and he had abhorred the term "tsar". He said: "It did not reflect in any way the job that I had or the powers and responsibilities that I didn't have. If, as has been portrayed, I was there to change the world single-handedly, then clearly my critics would say I failed to do that." The committee did not ask Mr Hellawell directly whether he agreed with the decision to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug. Under repeated questioning from MPs, Sue Kellen, director of drug strategy at the Home Office, denied that cannabis had been effectively decriminalised. She said reform of cannabis laws would not lead to Dutch-style coffee shops openly selling the drug. Supplying the drug would remain illegal because there was evidence that allowing it to be sold commercially resulted in more people using it, she said. Asked by David Winnick, the Labour MP, whether those in possession of small amounts of cannabis were, in practice, likely to face prosecution, she said: "No." Home Office officials were accused of being "in denial" of more radical solutions to the problem of drug abuse after they admitted they had not examined the possible effects of decriminalising all drugs. Chris Mullin, the Labour MP and committee chairman, told them: "There's a huge debate raging in the outside world about whether decriminalisation is or is not a good thing." David Cameron, the Tory MP for Witney, agreed. He said: "It would be disappointing if radical options were not, at least, looked at." Mr Mullin asked officials to report back to the committee by Thursday with a set of arguments rebutting pro-liberalisation ideas such as across-the-board decriminalisation of drugs. The committee is due to meet next week to hear evidence from witnesses who are largely in favour of more liberal drug laws. Mr Hellawell's comments on cannabis were welcomed by Ann Widdecombe, who, as shadow home secretary, had advocated on-the-spot fines for possession. Her proposals collapsed after several members of the shadow cabinet said they had experimented with cannabis in their youth. "I cannot imagine any serious person arguing against Keith Hellawell," she said last night. Miss Widdecombe added: "No one is saying that if you use cannabis you will end up on heroin tomorrow, but if you are on heroin, you will have started on soft drugs first."
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