Ministers 'ignoring drugs issue'

The government is not expect to soften its stance on soft drugs

The government has been accused of ignoring calls for a serious debate on radical changes to the way the police and the courts deal with drug abuse.

The criticism came from Dame Ruth Runciman, the author of a Police Foundation report issued in March last year which proposed that people caught in possession of cannabis, ecstasy and LSD should not be sent to prison.

The government will respond formally to the report next month, but drugs "czar" Keith Hellawell insisted that suggestions that ministers did not want a debate were wrong.

The issue of a mature and rational, national debate - whether they are ready or willing to go into that is open to question given the current response

Dame Ruth Runciman

In a speech to a major drugs conference hosted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in London on Wednesday, Lady Runciman will call on the government not to "cherrypick" the report's conclusions.

The report, the product of a two-and-a-half year inquiry, also recommended that cannabis users should be given cautions.

It called instead for a new crime of drug dealing to target those profiting from illegal drugs.

Lady Runciman said it was disappointing that no ministers or representative of Mr Hellawell would be attending the conference.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: "That is disappointing and I don't think what one would necessarily have expected.

'Committed'

"The issue of a mature and rational, national debate - whether they are ready or willing to go into that is open to question given the current response.

"The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has defined the conference as moving the drugs debate forward.

"It would have been an extremely constructive exercise to have attending also to partake in what should be a dialogue and not a slanging match members of the government and representatives responsible for drugs policy."

'Nonsense'

Lady Runciman added: "There's no doubt the government is committed to a successful policy to tackle drug abuse.

"We think the strategy could have a much better drug law to help it deliver its objectives."

But Mr Hellawell insisted that the the government had taken full notice of the report.

"The idea that we never have a debate about this, the idea that the government just says no and the idea that government policy isn't up with public thought is quite frankly total nonsense," he said.

Dame Ruth Runciman does not want young people criminalised

"The problem is that usually all you get reported is the side that wants change, particularly legalisation.

"The government does reflect public policy and it does reflect many of the things the foundation's report said."

Responding to suggestions in the report that the government should discriminate between drugs and categorise them more accurately, he said this was already the case.

"The government's policy, which was published more than two years ago and predates the Runciman report substantially, actually says we focus on the drugs that cause the most harm. That is heroin, cocaine and some of the synthetic drugs.

"That we change the way in which we operate to pay most of our attention and most of our resources to deal with those difficult drugs."