Subj: Cannabis campaign - A squandered opportunity

Date: May 3, 1998

Source: Independent on Sunday

Cannabis campaign - A squandered opportunity

Drug tsar Keith Hellawell's White Paper misses
the point, argues Graham Ball

TACKLING Drugs to Build a Better Britain, the
title of drug tsar Keith Hellawell's proposals for
solving the country's biggest social crisis, sounds
like a spin-doctor's daydream.

The White Paper, unveiled last Monday, is long
on rhetoric and short on logic. For many involved
in countering drug problems, it represents a
squandered opportunity.

Mr Hellawell, a former chief constable, claims his
proposals will shift resources away from detection
and towards prevention, in order to keep children
out of the drug culture.

That is long overdue. Official figures reveal that
62 per cent of the £1.4bn annual bill for drugs is
spent on law enforcement compared with only 13
per cent on treatment programmes and 12 per
cent on education.

But while the White Paper makes clear that the
main thrust of the strategy will be directed at
heroin and cocaine, which cause the greatest
damage, there is no recognition of the different
status of cannabis, nor detail of how the proposed
transition of resources will take place.

Statistics reveal that most of the £4bn worth of
drug-related crime in Britain is caused by about
200,000 addicts. But the White Paper displays
no new understanding of the differing patterns of
drug use in our society and throws no new light
on the real reasons behind Britain's growing drug
habit.

Its underlying assumption appears to be that drug
addiction is essentially a chemical progression, a
sort of inevitable chain-reaction that
propelsoccasional cannabis users through to
heroin dependency. The reality is that most
people who indulge in heavy opiate abuse do so
for powerful sociological and economic reasons.

However, cannabis offences still form the great
majority of all drug arrests, despite the fact that
85 per cent of all those charged have no criminal
record.

Decriminalising cannabis will free huge sums for
tackling the real problems of drugs in society and
end an abuse that is doing far more damage than
the drug alone could do.

Not all drug reformers feeldisappointed by the
White Paper. Greg Poulter, deputy director of the
drugs charity Release, said: "Keith Hellawell has
not gone for headline-grabbing quick-fix solutions
but unless the Treasury frees up genuinely new
money there is little chance of success."

But Paul Flynn, the Welsh Labour MP who has
been seeking a full Parliamentary debate on
cannabis in the Commons, said: "The White
Paper is no more than an exercise in finetuning the
engines on the Titanic. We have the greatest
amount of drug-related crime in Europe and yet
this flatulent and inadequate response goes
nowhere near addressing the heart of the problem
of drugs in society and the absurd illegal status of
cannabis in particular."

The White Paper aims to set policy for drug
management for the next 10 years. Over that
timespan three things are certain. Jack Straw, the
Home Secretary, will no longer be in office; Keith
Hellawell will be comfortably retired; and drugs
will continue to menace our communities. But will
cannabis still be illegal a decade from now?On the
evidence of the White Paper, change will need a
new generation of courageous and enlightened
politicians.