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UK: Hellawell blasts new policy on cannabis
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Tuesday 03 Dec 2002 OFFICIAL policy on cannabis is "a dog's dinner" and is encouraging young people to think taking the drug is acceptable, the Government's former drugs czar Keith Hellawell said today. His attack came as Home Secretary David Blunkett prepared to launch a radical revamp of drugs policy, dropping a series of targets set by Mr Hellawell four years ago. The targets to slash hard drug use by half by 2008 were "not credible", Mr Blunkett said. The new strategy being launched by the Home Office and the Department of Health is expected to shift the emphasis on to getting heroin and crack cocaine addicts into treatment. Targets will shift away from definitive overall reductions in drug use, availability and repeat offending to become "more focused" on specific types of drug user and proportions of people arrested who test positive for drugs. Mr Hellawell, of Kirkburton, who resigned in July in protest at Mr Blunkett's plan to downgrade cannabis from Class B to C, had aimed to reduce the availability of Class A drugs by a quarter by 2005, and 50% by 2008. The former West Yorkshire Chief Constable had pledged to reduce by the same amounts the number of young people reporting use of Class A drugs, and the level of repeat offending among drug offenders. The only one of his targets which will emerge unscathed today is to increase the number of problem drug users in treatment by 55% by 2004, rising to 100% by 2008. Mr Hellawell accused Mr Blunkett of sending out mixed messages over cannabis. "If they take cannabis out of the equation in one stroke they will then reduce on paper the amount of drug use in this country and clearly that will be a fiction. I think the policy on cannabis is a dog's dinner. "He has given the signal to young people in particular that he believes it's all right. That's the signal that police officers are getting on the streets." But the Home Secretary countered: "The only mixed messages or confusion that arises is when headlines say that we no longer believe that cannabis should be illegal. We don't. We think it's a dangerous drug, it is not anywhere near as dangerous as crack, or heroin or ecstasy which kill people on a regular basis."
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