JOHN REID is dropping plans to set levels for the quantities of drugs a person can carry before being charged with possession with intent to supply, The Times has learnt.

Today’s move comes after the controversy caused by thresholds put forward by Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, which suggested that a person could carry enough cannabis to make 500 joints and claim that it was for personal use.

Mr Reid has decided to abandon his predecessor’s approach of setting the amount a person can claim is for personal use, because of the confusion caused by the proposal. He will now leave it to the discretion of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide when a person caught with drugs should be prosecuted for possession or the more serious offence of possession with intent to supply.

The Home Secretary is also expected to announce that the Home Office will not go ahead with an immediate overhaul of the 30-year-old system for classifying illegal drugs.

Mr Clarke and the Commons Science and Technology Committee believed that the existing system was outdated and needed to be updated. Mr Reid, however, has decided that the focus of the Government’s drug strategy should be on enforcement, tackling the use of the most-harmful drugs, treatment programmes and education on the dangers of drug misuse.

Figures published today reveal that drug use is broadly stable, with a fall in the use of cannabis by young people. A record 181,300 people contacted drug treatment services in 2005-06, with 140,000 receiving treatment.

The Home Office has decided that setting a threshold for the amount of drugs that would suggest supplying is confusing to the public and too rigid a guideline for officers policing drugs. Mr Clarke’s suggestion last year that drug users caught with enough cannabis to make 500 joints would be able to claim that it was for personal use provoked uproar.

Revised regulations drawn up by the Home Office this year could have resulted in drug users caught with as few as five Ecstasy tablets or five grams of cannabis, enough for about ten joints, being prosecuted as dealers. But the lower levels also caused concern and the Government’s experts, the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs, said that they could cause policing problems.

The threshold policy was widely misunderstood, with the public believing that it was a rigid level dividing whether a drug user would be prosecuted for possession or the more serious charge of intent to supply, which in the case of cannabis carries a 14-year jail term.

While some police officers supported the idea of thresholds, others feared that it would limit their discretion to take into account the circumstances in which a person was found with drugs.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Our drug strategy focuses on the most dangerous users. This strategy is working. Increasing quantities of drugs are being seized, organised crime groups and dealers disrupted, record numbers are entering and staying in treatment and drug-related crime is falling.”

Today’s announcement will be welcomed by police and drugs agencies for the decision to drop thresholds. But the drugs agencies will be disappointed that there is not be an immediate overhaul of the way in which drugs are classified. Martin Barnes, chief executive of the charity Drugscope, said: “Abandoning the thresholds would be the right thing to do."

NEW BROOMS SWEEP CLEAN

David Blunkett, Home Secretary 2001-04, referring to his predecessor, Jack Straw (1997-2001):

“God alone knows what Jack did for four years.” Drops Mr Straw’s target to remove 30,000 failed asylum-seekers and dependants. Abandons system of giving asylum-seekers vouchers for food

Charles Clarke: 2004-2006:

Privately raised his eyebrows at some of the things he found on arrival at Home Office after Blunkett’s resignation. Scraps David Blunkett’s 80,000 cap on prison numbers. System of three permanent secretaries introduced under Mr Blunkett ended

John Reid: 2006-:

Scathing about what he found on arrival after Mr Clarke’s dismissal. Described immigration and nationality directorate as not fit for purpose. Abandons Charles Clarke’s proposals for police mergers. Drops Mr Clarke’s proposals for drug thresholds

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