EVERYONE agrees that something must be done about Britain's drugs policy, but everyone has violently differing opinions on what should be done.

David Blunkett, then, is quite brave to do anything at all.

In reclassifying cannabis, he is formalising what the police have been quietly doing for some years. With their resources limited, police time must be prioritised, and the priority will always be to take a heroin dealer out of circulation and leave the cannabis user alone.

And if even the police flout the law, the law clearly is an ass and it could be argued that Mr Blunkett is only giving it back a measure of respect.

However, it might also be that he is confusing the law even more.

In future, cannabis users will be dealt with a court summons rather than be arrested. The idea is that because an arrest results in much paperwork, police time will be freed. A summons, though, also means much paperwork. And there is still the confusion that the power of arrest for cannabis users has been retained. Little appears to have been cleared up.

By increasing the maximum prison term for a cannabis dealer to 14 years, Mr Blunkett hopes he is showing how anti-drugs he is. However, the user will only receive a court summons - just like a speeding driver. Although people accept that speeding is wrong, a speeding ticket is regarded as just an irritating slap on the wrist and not a terrible sin. Is this the message on drugs Mr Blunkett is sending out?

And what will the prospect of a long prison sentence do to the dealer? It may deter the casual one who provides a bit of blow for his friends. But if they want to pursue their vaguely legal pastime, they will now have to go to a professional dealer who regards prison as an occupational hazard to be weighed against the money he makes from supplying hard drugs. Does Mr Blunkett really want to force the casual user to move in such circles?

Confusion also reigns in the Brixton experiment. It has become more about the personality and sexual preferences of the local commander, Brian Paddick, than about the effectiveness of a new police policy.

There is evidence that the new policy has enabled police to lock up more heroin dealers than before. But, equally, there is evidence that there are even more dealers than before on the streets of Brixton because they believe the area is a soft touch.

No proper research has been done into whether police time in Brixton really has been saved, and little regard seems to have been paid to whether local people really like the new policy.

So Mr Blunkett may be brave in trying to do something about one of the most serious problems facing this country, he may also have not been brave enough. He appears to have fallen between two controversial stools - legalisation on the one hand and zero tolerance on the other - and only confused the situation.