THE Government's new ruling on cannabis is neither fish nor fowl.

By declassifying the drug but promising stiff penalties for those who supply it, the message is you can happily wander around with the drug in your pocket and consume it at your convenience. But to buy it you must resort to the criminal underworld, making phone calls to unsavoury dodgy types or passing crumpled notes on street corners.

The drug barons will be delighted at the market opportunities available.

If, as even police chief constables appear to accept these days, cannabis is barely worth making a legal fuss over, its supply should be controlled through chemists and newsagents.

Why, Gordon Brown could even impose a tax on it, so the country can benefit from the profits, not the criminals.