Cannabis laws softened, but new crackdown on dealers

David Blunkett allowed police to retain powers to arrest people for cannabis possession yesterday, yielding to critics who accused him of going soft on drugs.

The Home Secretary announced to Parliament that he was reclassifying the drug from Class B to Class C, the most important change to Britain's drugs laws in modern times. But instead of a blanket downgrading of the offence of cannabis possession, he said that the police would still be able to apprehend users of the drug in certain circumstances.

Mr Blunkett told the House of Commons: "They will be able to arrest for possession where public order is threatened or where children are a risk."

The Home Secretary also said he was considering a new criminal offence of supplying illegal drugs to children. In addition, he will raise the maximum sentence for dealing in Class C drugs to 14 years, the current ultimate penalty for supplying Class B drugs.

Because the changes will require primary legislation they will not come into effect for another 12 months, delaying once again what drug law reformers had hoped would be a substantial shift indrug policy. Despite the concessions to hardliners, the decision to go ahead with reclassification prompted a furious response from those opposed to any softening of the law.

Mr Blunkett was embarrassed yesterday morning when the former drugs tsar Keith Hellawell went on national radio to announce that he had resigned his post as international drugs adviser to the Government.

Mr Hellawell said his decision was in protest at the relaxation of the law on cannabis.

Claiming that the reclassification would lead to "euphoria amongst drug dealers" he said: "The perception now, certainly in Britain, is that the Government doesn't care about personal possession of cannabis, which gives a totally misleading message to parents, children and the public as a whole."

Downing Street claimed to be "bemused" by Mr Hellawell's position, saying he had been supportive of proposals to reclassify cannabis during meetings with Mr Blunkett and other Home Office ministers.

In the Commons, Mr Blunkett was accused by Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, of landing the Government with a "massive liability" and the country's communities with "the prospect of social disaster".

Mr Letwin told MPs that the policy would send out "deeply confusing mixed messages" and would in effect "give control over cannabis to the drugs dealers with the police turning away".

Mr Blunkett admitted that until to two years ago he was against reclassification. He said: "But I have been convinced by the evidence, by the need to target hard drug dealers, by the way we can clamp down on the ones who are threatening the lives of young people across the country."

The Home Secretary faced further criticism from his own backbenchers, with Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, criticising the effects of a Metropolitan Police experiment on cannabis reclassification in her constituency in south London.

She told Mr Blunkett: "There are more drug dealers than ever and there are more people using cannabis. In 10 or 20 years' time, are you certain we will not look back on this day as the one where we got it wrong?"

The Home Secretary claimed that the so-called Lambeth Experiment had led to a 10 per cent increase in the capture of Class A drug dealers and a 10 per cent fall in robberies.

Chris Mullin, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, which recently called for a softening of the cannabis laws, said reclassification was "plain common sense". But Mr Blunkett said he had rejected the committee's suggestions that ecstasy should be made a Class B drug and that heroin users should be given access to safe injecting rooms.

Roger Howard, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, said that by dismissing the idea of injecting rooms, Mr Blunkett had "missed a golden opportunity".

He described the Home Secretary's package of drug reforms as ranging from the "impressively forward-looking to the dangerously short-sighted". He said people could still be jailed for two years for possession of cannabis.

The key points

* Cannabis to be reclassified from Class B to Class C drug.

* Police to retain powers of arrest for cannabis possession in certain circumstances.

* Possible new criminal offence of supplying any illegal drugs to children.

* Maximum sentence for dealing in Class C drugs to be 14 years.

* Changes will not come into effect for 12 months.

* No change in classification of ecstasy as Class B drug, and no plans for heroin users to be given access to safe injecting rooms, so-called shooting galleries.