LONDON -- In Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland it is practically impossible to get arrested for buying or using "soft drugs." In the Netherlands, users may buy up to five grams of cannabis or hashish for private use at 1,500 licensed "coffee shops," and they are opening two drive-through outlets in the border town of Venlo to cater to German purchasers. Even in Canada, Conservative leader and former Prime Minister Joe Clark is openly calling for the decriminalization of cannabis. But that is still far short of what Sir David Ramsbotham, the outgoing chief inspector of prisons, suggested last Sunday in Britain.

"The more I look at what's happening, the more I can see the logic of legalizing drugs, because the misery that is caused by the people who are making criminal profit is so appalling and the sums are so great that are being made illegally. I think there is merit in legalizing and prescribing, so people don't have to go and find an illegal way of doing it," he said.

You will note that he said "drugs," not just "cannabis," and that he talked of "legalizing and prescribing," not just "decriminalizing." Most British politicians are afraid to go that far in public yet, but over the past week two former home secretaries and outgoing British "drugs czar" Keith Hellawell have all called for a debate on decriminalizing "soft drugs." And the new home secretary, David Blunkett, has given his support to a local experiment in the south London district of Brixton, where police will simply caution people found with cannabis.