Agencies back licensing move

DRUGS AGENCIES yesterday welcomed police suggestions for a drugs licensing system.

Alasdair Cant, spokesman for Release, an advice and information service for drug users, said: 'We have been calling for reform as far as drugs legislation is concerned for a long time.

'Things are certainly not working as the law stands at the moment, and it has been acknowledged that drugs are a part of the crime wave among the young. The criminalisation of drugs across the board is costing society an enormous amount of money.'

Jasper Woodcock, director of the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence, said: 'I am always interested when people are looking for solutions and when ideas are being aired. Drugs are an intractable problem which have not been resolved satisfactorily anywhere in the world.'

Commander John Grieve, head of criminal intelligence at the Metropolitan Police, told the Association of Chief Police Officers' annual drugs conference on Thursday that the Government should 'think the unthinkable' and examine a licensing system.

Although he was strongly opposed by some police officers at the conference, he was merely reflecting increasing acceptance of this idea among doctors and some Home Office officials dealing with the problem. Increasingly, police and customs officers in Britain are not taking people caught with small amounts of cannabis to court. And about 30 consultant psychiatrists in England and Wales are licensed to prescribe hard drugs to addicts.

At a time when other countries are moving towards liberalisation of their drugs laws, the power of doctors to prescribe such drugs in Britain is more limited than it used to be.

Increasingly, total prohibition is seen as lining the pockets of dealers and raising the level of drug-related crime.

In January the Italian cabinet approved a plan to decriminalise the personal consumption of drugs in what was seen as an admission of the failure of prohibition laws. Drug dealing will remain illegal.

In the Netherlands the sale of small quantities of cannabis is now legal in 300 coffee shops in Amsterdam.

The city's Drugs and Aids Bureau says that this has enabled young people to experiment with soft drugs without being drawn into using addictive substances. The average age of hard drugs users in Amsterdam is 34 and only 2 per cent of them are under 22.