The Guardian asks
Has Blunkett Made A Hash Of It?
Thursday July 11, 2002
The papers are full of joints today. But is it safe to smoke them now that David Blunkett has announced his intention to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug next July? No one is quite sure, it seems – least of all the police.
“Don’t do it,” advises the Metropolitan police. “It’s too early not to get arrested for smoking it.” The Kent force described it as an “arrestable offence”, but Avon and Somerset said offenders would only be cautioned if they were carrying a small amount. “Any arrest is still subject to discretion,” South Wales police told the Times.
A number of the papers point out that cannabis dealers will receive longer sentences under the home secretary’s plans. “Why should it be a serious offence to sell cannabis if it is all right to smoke it?” asks the Mail. The Telegraph says the inconsistency is “not just illogical. It could prove disastrous.” The Times says that while there is no incentive for a dealer to specialise in cannabis and abandon class A drugs, “the Blunkett formula is not entirely inconsistent, just hypocritical”.
Boris Johnson agrees. “People smoking dope are spine-cracking bores; and I am told by experts that dope is no longer the innocent substance of the 1970s,” he writes in the Telegraph. But “the stuff is either legal or it isn’t”.
Several reporters take the tube to Brixton to confirm that it is indeed very easy to obtain illegal substances there. Police have already stopped arresting people found carrying cannabis in the south London borough of Lambeth – an experiment the Met considers a success, but which one policeman on the beat deplores. “[Brixton’s drug problem] ’s got worse, an absolute failure,” he tells the Times. “They’ll tell you different,” he added, nodding towards the police HQ.
“I walked down bustling Brixton High Street to the cries of ‘skunk’ and ‘dope’ as traders peddled their wares,” says an appalled Sun reporter. “Drug users, dealers, cops and deadbeats … just a typical day in Brixton.” Dealers made GBP100 from the Mail’s reporter alone.
“Policy is a total mess,” complains a “confused” Independent. Mr Blunkett was wrong to reject “shooting galleries” – where heroin addicts can inject safely – and wrong not to downgrade ecstasy to a class B drug, it says. At least Keith Hellawell, the former “drugs tsar” who resigned yesterday in protest at the reforms, has gone, the paper adds.
The Mirror and Guardian both welcome the reforms. “Spliffing,” says the Mirror’s Paul Routledge. “Long overdue”, says the Guardian.
