Police point the way on drugs debate – Special report: drugs in Britain
Leader
Sunday June 17, 2001
The Observer
In the London policing area of Lambeth, Commander Brian Paddick is pioneering a scheme which might help address the pervasive problem of drugs supply. Those found in possession of cannabis for personal use will have it confiscated by the police and will be warned but not prosecuted.
As long as the drugs are destroyed, as the police promise, and not merely recycled, this could be a first substantive step in undermining Britain’s massive drugs economy. People will not want to buy drugs in Lambeth and its ‘town centre’, Brixton, because they are likely to lose them.
However, they will not be criminalised and hours of police time spent in processing minor offenders will be saved. If Mr Paddick, tipped as a future Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is successful, his scheme could lead to pressure for change throughout Britain.
It is truly refreshing to find senior police officers moving one step ahead of our sclerotic political process rather than their customary two paces behind. But if Mr Paddick’s approach appears courageous, it is partly a reflection of the pusillanimity of British politicians about drugs.
A year after Dame Ruth Runciman’s lengthy inquiry into our drugs laws, some of its key recommendations – particularly that cannabis be reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug, thus meriting the treatment it will now receive in Lambeth – have been ignored.
In the meantime, Britain still has a huge drugs underworld. Most efforts to control it are focused on legions of small-time users of cannabis rather than the criminal gangs behind the distribution of highly dangerous substances such as heroin and crack cocaine.
We now have a golden opportunity to debate drugs in a mature way. There are at least four years to go until the next general election. The Conservatives, many of whom are always willing to make cheap political capital out of the issue, are currently hamstrung.
And in David Blunkett, we have a new Home Secretary of avowedly illiberal instincts on social issues such as single mothers and gay relationships. It may be that he is able to look more easily at Britain’s drugs problem and persuade sceptical middle Britain to take some first steps out of the morass.
Sadly, it is all too likely that politicians will resist the opportunity to address the drugs issue seriously. If they do, they will have no one to blame but themselves for a continuance of the pitiful disconnection from the political process that young people demonstrated so powerfully by staying at home in their millions on polling day.
