It was bold and it could be risky. But Labour's recommendation to relax the law on cannabis is about adopting an "honest and commonsense" approach to a drug everyone knows is casually smoked at the dinner table by more than two million people in Britain.
Where the previous incumbent in the Home Secretary's chair, Mr Jack Straw, refused to go, Mr David Blunkett carefully negotiated the course this week, walking the legal and political tightrope between the status quo and decriminalisation.
But it is often the case with the Labour government that a trailed announcement of new thinking is usually accompanied by other far-reaching proposals.
So it was the case that as the Home Secretary proposed cannabis should be reclassified from a "B" to a "C" class drug - making possession a non-arrestable offence and reducing the criminal penalty - he also slipped in two other important recommendations to tackle drug misuse.
Going further than any other modern government to reform Britain's 30-year-old drug laws, Mr Blunkett also signalled Labour's support for licensing cannabis for medical use.
He also recommended the wider prescription of heroin by doctors to try to break the link between drug users and drug dealers and introduce users to treatment programmes.
Labour's U-turn on cannabis a year after it rejected the Police Foundation's recommendation that the drug should be reclassified signalled an attempt to establish "consistency and credibility" in drug law. Labour has recognised public opinion has moved ahead of policy.
The most recent research found 60 per cent of people supported legalising cannabis and 99 per cent put arrests for cannabis possession in the lowest police priority.
And while Mr Blunkett did not recommend cannabis use should be decriminalised, as the Conservative MP, Mr Peter Lilley, has suggested with cannabis being sold in authorised outlets, he signalled the extent to which the government had undergone a radical rethink.
"Cannabis would remain a controlled drug and using it a criminal offence," he told a Commons Select Committee.
"Above all, it would make sense to both those policing the system and those providing education and advice to prevent young people falling into addiction," he said.
"In spite of focusing on hard drugs, the majority of police time is currently spent on handling cannabis offences. It is time for an honest and commonsense approach focusing effectively on drugs that cause the most harm."
Medical opinion may be split on the issue of whether cannabis can be as destructive as alcohol or tobacco or whether it is a "gateway drug" to other illegal drugs, such as heroin or cocaine.
But despite the inevitable concern of many parents and teachers, Labour has acknowledged cannabis cannot be treated in the same way as "hard" drugs.
Reclassification means cannabis will be in the same class as anabolic steroids and drugs like Temazapam and for the police, the government's move is expected to yield practical benefits.
Police officers spend about three hours processing the paperwork for cannabis-related offences such as smoking it on the street.
Last year 300,000 people were stopped and searched for the drug and 90,000 were charged with possession; 49 per cent of schoolchildren have tried the drug.
The plan is that releasing the police from the requirement to arrest while still enabling officers to issue on-the-spot cautions means the police can devote more time to tracking down the dealers of "hard" drugs.
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir John Stevens, signalled his officers would be able to spend more time tackling street robbery which had increased in recent months in London.
Unsurprisingly, the former shadow home secretary, Ms Anne Widdecombe, who caused consternation in the Tory party when she proposed tougher drug laws last year, described Labour's plans as a "dealers' charter" with the likelihood that people would escape prosecution by claiming large quantities were for personal use.
It is unlikely, however, that police officers would fail to distinguish between dealers and users.
Just as it is equally unlikely that Mr Blunkett has taken the first step on the road to buying a joint at the local cafΘ with his bacon sandwich and cup of tea. rdonnelly@irish-times.ie