International Drug Tribune

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Although Keith Hellawell made liberal noises about cannabis legalisation, once he became drugs tsar he turned out to be its biggest opponent, writes Matthew Tempest

Matthew Tempest
Guardian Unlimited
Wednesday July 10, 2002

There are two conflicting theories as to why Keith Hellawell, the former drugs tsar who finally left the government in pique today, was ever appointed - but both portray the former West Yorkshire chief constable as a stooge.
Conspiracy theory number one is that Mr Hellawell, who had made liberal noises about cannabis and legalising brothels as a senior police officer, was brought into the drugs tsar role to soften up the ground for a rethink on drugs, and cannabis in particular. He was basically acting as a "lightning conductor" for any flack from the Daily Mail, et al.
If this was the plan, the government could legitimately sue for its money back under the Trades Description Act, as once in situ the formerly liberal Mr Hellawell has proved as unbending - and to his critics, unthinking - opponent of drugs reform as any Conservative home secretary.
The other theory is that Tony Blair didn't see drug reform as a major political issue in 1997 (even the Lib Dems weren't calling for the decriminalisation of cannabis) and simply stole the idea of a drugs tsar from his friend the US president Bill Clinton and appointed Mr Hellawell as a "safe pair of hands".
Well, that didn't work either, as Mr Hellawell was ridiculed first for his salary (at £105,000 it was more than the prime minister's at the time), and then sidelined for his increasingly hysterical opposition to any debate on cannabis, clinging on to the notion that it was a gateway to harder drugs even as the political, policing and medical consensus shifted under his feet.
His "credibility with the kids" was lost immediately, after Mr Hellawell joined the tabloid frenzy on Noel Gallagher, after the Oasis frontman compared having a joint with having a cup of tea.
The publication of his 10-year strategy on drugs was also ridiculed, and he was forced to revise it in subsequent years as targets were missed and the UK's drug consumption steadily rose.
He dismissed out of hand the police foundation's landmark report on drug policy in 2000, which first recommended both the dowgrading of cannabis and ecstacy, and the permitted medicinal use of cannabis.
Instead, Mr Hellawell retreated further into the "war on drugs" rhetoric, undermined again when Mo Mowlam, shunted out of her Northern Ireland job and into the government's anti-drugs coordinator at the Cabinet Office, admitted smoking cannabis as a student.
The rhetoric became more hysterical as Mr Hellawell at one point suggested buying the Taliban's entire Afghan opium crop and burning it.
However, it was the appointment of David Blunkett as home secretary, replacing the more hardline Jack Straw, which signalled the death knell for the increasingly sidelined former copper. To save Mr Hellawell's blushes, he wasn't sacked, but downgraded from drugs tsar, to a two-day-a-week adviser to the Home Office.
With the home affairs select committee coming out in favour of cannabis reclassification last autumn, the writing was on the wall for the former chief constable.
His petulant resignation this morning suggests he may be taking the Chris Woodhead career path - a former hardline appointee, brought in to give the government supporting cover under fire from Middle England, who then jumps ship for a lucrative media career with the rightwing press. A Hellawell column with the Mail or the Telegraph looks increasingly likely.
His bizarre parting shot today - that the government was "moving further towards decriminalisation than any other country in the world", despite the situation in the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, shows how out of step with both the government, public opinion and the international situation Mr Hellawell had become.

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