Mowlam Says Legalisation of Cannabis Could Help

Alan Travis

Mo Mowlam, the former Labour cabinet minister responsible for drugs policy, called yesterday for the legalisation of cannabis, saying her experience in government had taught her that decriminalisation did not go far enough. She argued that the cannabis trade should be legalised so it can be regulated with government-tested products which would be taxed - as are alcohol and tobacco - to raise funds for the national health service and to treat addicts of all types of drugs.

Her backing for a radical change in government drugs policy coincides with the start today of a six-month Metropolitan police experiment in Lambeth, south London, under which those caught in possession of cannabis will not be arrested or charged with a criminal offence.

The home secretary, David Blunkett, has already welcomed this initiative as "an interesting experiment" but any softer line towards cannabis is expected to be blocked by Tony Blair.

A Home Office spokesman stressed that Ms Mowlam was stating a personal view.

Since the election, government coordination of drugs policy across Whitehall has moved from Ms Mowlam's old job at the Cabinet Office to the home secretary, whose first act was to sideline Keith Hellawell, the drugs tsar. Ms Mowlam is believed to have been angered that his well respected deputy, Mike Trace, who has a long record in the field of drug treatment, was dealt with in a similar manner.

Ms Mowlam, who left the cabinet at the election, said that her experience in charge of drugs policy had convinced her it was time to decriminalise cannabis. Holland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and most recently Switzerland had all taken such a relaxed approach. "In practice in this country, if you live in an area where the police do not enforce the laws for small amounts and your parents adopt the view that it's better to know what you're doing than not, you are less likely to get into trouble," said Ms Mowlam, in a column in the Sunday Mirror. "What we need is an inquiry or commission to look at the best way to implement decriminalisation. I would also take one further step. It strikes me as totally irrational to decriminalise cannabis without looking at the sale of it. It would be an absurdity to have criminals controlling the market of a substance people can use legally."

New customs and excise figures are expected to show that cannabis seizures have fallen in the last few years from 80 tonnes in 1997/98 to 42 tonnes in 2000/01. This has been accompanied by a sharp fall in price, with Moroccan resin selling for less than £400 for a quarter of a kilo, compared with £636 in 1997. The price of a joint is now a little over £1.