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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Blair Challenged on Drug Scheme
Greg Hurst, Parliamentary Correspondent The Times
Thursday 04 Jul 2002 IAIN DUNCAN SMITH urged Tony Blair yesterday to scrap an experiment in Lambeth, South London, under which the police give warnings, rather than make arrests, for the smoking of cannabis. The Conservative leader said it had doubled drug-trafficking in the area and flew in the face of a pledge by the Prime Minister to make Britain the hardest place to be a drug dealer. Mr Blair repeatedly declined to be drawn, saying that its impact should be assessed on the basis of evidence. Although the year-long Brixton experiment is a local initiative by the Metropolitan Police, MPs are awaiting a statement by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, on whether cannabis will be reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug. It would remain illegal, but possession of cannabis would cease to be an arrestable offence. Maximum penalties would be reduced from 14 years' imprisonment to five years for suppling cannabis and from five years to two years for its possession. Mr Duncan Smith quoted a senior Metropolitan Police officer as saying that anything that exposed children to more contact with drugs should not be tolerated. He said that drug-trafficking had doubled and total drug offences tripled in Lambeth in the past year. "Community leaders inside the area are all complaining about it. One has actually said that 'the police have abandoned the streets to the dealers. If we can see it, why can't the police?' " he told Mr Blair. "A year ago, he promised to make Britain the hardest and toughest place to be a drug dealer in the Western world. Will he stop the scheme now?" The Prime Minister, after snatched conversations with Mr Blunkett, sitting next to him, said: "If it doesn't work then, of course, we won't extend it, but it is important that we take into account all the relevant views that are put to us." Mr Blair suggested that local opinion was more divided than the Tory leader maintained and said it would not be right to give a firm opinion until all evidence had been studied. "There are differences of opinion as to whether it has worked or not. If we come to the view that it is not working then, of course, we shan't do it," he said. "But I think it is important that we consider this on the basis of all the available evidence and take into account the views of community leaders, the police and the experts on the ground." Later Mr Blair struck a sympathetic tone when urged by Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem, Orkney and Shetland) to sanction the medicinal use of cannabis. Mr Carmichael said that one of his constituents had been prosecuted for cultivating cannabis to relieve the pain of multiple sclerosis. Mr Blair said the Government was reviewing this issue urgently. In another exchange, the Prime Minister appealed for sensitivity over a dramatisation to be screened on ITV next week of the story of Harold Shipman. James Purnell (Lab, Stalybridge and Hyde) told him: "It is utterly insensitive of ITV to be broadcasting next week a programme on Harold Shipman, the very same week that 500 families find out whether he murdered their relatives." Mr Blair replied: "There are obviously very, very sensitive and difficult issues here, which I hope those broadcasting material about the Shipman case take account of."
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