Former drugs Czar: My cannabis fears were right

Jan 27 2009 by Andrew Hirst, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

He said a study in New Zealand revealed that people who smoke cigarettes are 60 times more likely to try cannabis and people who then smoke cannabis are 60 times more likely to get involved in hard drugs.

Mr Hellawell said: “I’m not saying that everyone who smokes will smoke cannabis and then take hard drugs.

“What this study shows is that they are more likely to do that. This is why part of the anti-drugs strategy I introduced focussed so heavily on schoolchildren and stopping them smoking in the first place.

“All that work that was being done in schools was put back because of the whim of one politician, the then Home Secretary David Blunkett, and has put that educational message back so many years. It will now take us to the next generation to get the message right and for the young people to believe that message.

“A great deal of confusion has been created since cannabis was declassified in January 2004 and undermined the dangers associated with cannabis.”

He said the declassification had sent out the wrong message.

“Most people in this country abide by the laws even if they don’t agree with them,” said Mr Hellawell.

“After what happened to cannabis, the message came across that it was not dangerous, which was a false message. People who would never have dreamed of using cannabis then tried it.”

Mr Hellawell revealed that as Drugs Czar and working with the Association of Chief Police Officers, he had originally come up with the three strikes and you’re out rule and revealed that it fell at the final hurdle for purely political reasons.

He said his proposal was passed by the Cabinet – but then the Tories came up with a similar idea and Mr Hellawell said the Government dropped it so as not to be seen to be following a Tory scheme.

He believes David Blunkett’s decision to reclassify cannabis from class B to class C has put back the fight against cannabis 10 years or more.

“Skunk cannabis has been around for many years and it has always had psychotic effects, especially with young people.

“The idea that this is something new is simply nonsense.

“Goodness knows how they allowed Blunkett to introduce this at the time. I’m sure no-one really supported him. Now it’s being changed back as a matter of political expediency to avoid embarrassment.

“This is why I have lost faith in politicians.”

In West Yorkshire the strength of cannabis is higher than average.

West Yorkshire Police’s force drugs coordinator Bryan Dent – who was a detective inspector in Huddersfield – said that since cannabis was reclassified in 2004 its strength had gone up and organised crime gangs had become involved in cultivating it.

In recent years huge ‘cannabis factories’ – some growing drugs with a street value of £250,000 – have been uncovered in Huddersfield and West Yorkshire.