The British government's decision yesterday to relax the law in relation to possession of cannabis for personal use was flagged as long ago as last October. In adopting what is without doubt a brave, through some would say wrong-headed, policy, the government has been true to its word.
Whether it is the correct thing to do is another matter and will be the subject of heated debate in Britain and elsewhere, not least in Ireland where a determined though small constituency would welcome similar change.
Mr Blanket pronounced himself convinced by the evidence. In essence, the evidence, as he would have it, is that marijuana smoking is no more harmful that smoking tobacco and perhaps less harmful than alcohol. Millions of hours of police time are spent chasing otherwise law abiding citizens, pursuing a habit that is largely socially acceptable. On the other hand, few outside the remoter fringes of the Libertarian Right, would advocate the toleration, much less legalisation, of heroin use. Better to have the forces of law concentrated against the suppliers and users of so-called hard drugs, the killer Class A drugs.
But whatever Mr Blunkett says about possession of the drug for personal use remaining a criminal offence, the fact that from July 2003 it will no longer be an arrestable offence throughout the UK is a clear indication that the police will simply no longer be interested. People using cannabis will thus become more visible, fearing neither social opprobrium nor the law. It is an indication of the measure of double-think or, perhaps more charitably put, the measure of compromise behind Mr Blunkett's decision that growing and supplying cannabis is to remain an indictable offence, carrying a penalty of five to 14 years imprisonment. How personal users of small amounts of cannabis are expected legally to obtain the drug is unclear. One thing is certain, however: as demand grows, supply will follow suit.
These changes in this State's nearest neighbour have implications here. The authorities in Northern Ireland are less than pleased at the decision, arguing that they face a major cannabis problem, one connected not least to paramilitary criminal gangs. The authorities here may not relish the prospect of drug users from this jurisdiction driving north to stock up and return.