Straw hints at cannabis rethink

Jack Straw has dramatically admitted the Government may have to reverse its decision to soften the law on cannabis.

The Foreign Secretary broke ranks by dropping a heavy hint that there should be a review of the downgrading of the drug.

He spoke out at a Labour "big conversation" event in Warwickshire where members of the public raised concerns about rising figures for cannabis abuse.

The minister responded: "It was done for good reasons but we may need to think if we have to review it in the light of experience."

His words took Whitehall colleagues by surprise today - and fuelled speculation that the Government is deeply divided over the wisdom of the muchcriticised decision. A close ally of Mr Straw made clear the minister had never been enthusiastic about relaxing the law, but "he supported the collective decision to downgrade cannabis".

The Home Office denied there were any moves afoot to reverse the change, which went through last year.

But concern has been growing about ballooning use of the drug and a chorus of research findings that frequent pot smoking causes serious mental health problems.

Mr Straw, who served as home secretary in Labour's first term, is a stern opponent of the relaxation of drugs laws.

When his own son William was revealed to have bought cannabis, he frogmarched the teenager to a police station.

In 1998 Mr Straw flatly ruled out any moves to decriminalise the drug. Within four years his successor at the Home Office, David Blunkett, de c ided to downgr ade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug - giving many users the impression that possession of it had been decriminalised.

The Tories seized on Mr Straw's comment. Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "It appears the Government has seen the error of its ways. The downgrading of cannabis was a dreadful decision which sends out mixed messages to children that it is okay to take drugs."

A spokesman for Mr Straw said his words were not meant to suggest the Government's policy was wrong.