Still, we can dream, so let's look at what the Police Foundation is saying. Remember the committee that produced the report included two Chief Constables, and the secretariat included two former Home Office officials. Its Chair was Lady Runciman, a former member of the ACMD (the Government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs). One overall conclusion in the report is that the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) is 'arbitrary and inconsistent' and imposes a heavy burden on the criminal justice system without producing any substantial benefits for the public. A central recommendation is that possession of cannabis should never attract a prison sentence, but should instead be regulated through fines or other means. Latest Home Office figures show that about 500 people were imprisoned in 1997 for use of cannabis. When you think that the average annual cost of imprisoning an adult male in the UK is £24, 604 (cost of a stay in a local like Strangeways) and then set that against the estimated 5 million cannabis smokers in the UK, you begin to see what the committee is driving at.

The report will also recommend significant changes in the classes and schedules of controlled drugs as a move towards distinguishing between 'hard' and 'soft' drugs. At present Ecstasy is a Class A drug alongside heroin and cocaine, subject to the heaviest penalties for possession and sale. But an estimated 500,000 young people use 'E' every weekend in the UK. The report recommends that it should be downgraded and treated like cannabis as a 'soft', relatively harmless drug.

The committee is also expected to call for a relaxation in the law in relation to the use of cannabis for medical purposes. It argues for a clarification of the rather blurred and confusing distinction between possession and supply. Possession of under two grammes, the report suggests, should be treated as a minor civil offence. Two grammes and above could be regarded as supply. Although the committee is expected to suggest that the law should distinguish between social and commercial supply to deal with the kind of cases where some young people have been given long custodial sentences for supplying a small group of friends with an 'E' each.

The kind of thinking the leaked bits of the report reveal is probably more in line with public opinion than the Government's own thinking on drug issues. For example, a recent MORI Poll found that 80% of respondents wanted the laws against cannabis relaxed, with only 17% believing that possession should be illegal as at present. But, as we said at the beginning, there's not much chance of Jack Straw or Tony ('just piss in this bottle son') Blair moving from their present illiberal attitudes.

All the more strange when you remember that this country has a worse record (or better, depending where you stand on this) for illicit drug use than any of its European partners. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs (an EU funded research organisation) in a recent study of drug use in all 15 EU countries found that three times as many young people in Britain had tried Ecstasy as German or French youth. Young people in this country were also much more likely to have used hallucingoens, amphetamines and solvents. Whatever the government might think, there's no evidence that UK drug laws actually deter many people from using drugs so the Police Foundation contribution to the drugs debate is a welcome one.

Although it's not much help to those of us who like brown and the odd stone, it's good to see a debate starting about the drug laws. One response from those in power will be to say that, if we adopt the Dutch approach and distinguish between 'hard' and 'soft' drugs, so that we can be more permissive with youthful experimental and recreational users, then we run the risk of many more young people experimenting with the 'proper' Class A's. A quick glance across the channel at the situation in the Netherlands gives the lie to this one. Despite it's so-called 'soft' drug policies, the Dutch have a lower prevalence of junkies per head of population (1.6 per 1,000) than France (2.4), Britain (2.6), Italy (3.0) and Switzerland (5.0). And, from the standpoint of a hard-core drug user, Dutch treatment services would be a great improvement on what we've got here.

Brian B.