CHANGES to the law on cannabis came down from on high, if you will pardon the pun. Home Secretary David Blunkett announced earlier this year that cannabis would be reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug.

This was a sensible move. Five million people in Britain regularly use cannabis. They regard tobacco and alcohol as posing greater health risks, an assumption broadly supported by the medical evidence. Yet otherwise law-abiding citizens who sold a few grams of the plant to friends risked being criminalised as drug dealers.

However, it is one thing for the Home Secretary to change the law and another for the police to implement that change. Chief Constables see the theoretical advantages of the reclassification; now they must decide how frontline officers put it into practice.

They are proposing a "three strikes and you're out" approach. We imported the modern drugs problem from America, and we are now adopting their solutions to it.

This compromise will see anyone stopped in the street in possession of cannabis once or twice in the same year being let off with a warning. The third time, they could be charged with possession.

In reality, only the most flagrant users are likely to face police intervention. Those who want to pursue their cannabis habit quietly and privately will be allowed to do so.

This is not only good news for users, but for the police too. The pilot police project in the London borough of Lambeth saw the force saving hundreds of man hours by not officially cautioning cannabis users. And arrests for dealing in Class A drugs increased.

That is a definite success. Most police officers now believe they are wasting their time pursuing cannabis users, time which would be far better spent targeting the hard drugs cartels.

Heroin and crack cocaine dealers bring misery and death to our streets. It is right that police resources are concentrated on smashing their destructive trade.

Updated: 10:17 Wednesday, September 04, 2002