By Tadhg Enright, Sky News Correspondent
A Liberal Democrat minister has accused Downing Street of "backpedalling" over a Home Office report suggesting heavy penalties for illegal drug use make no difference.
The report, which is based on international evidence, found "no apparent correlation between the 'toughness' of a country's approach and the prevalence of adult drugs use".
It has led to another split in the coalition, with Lib Dems supporting its proposed reforms and the Conservatives opposing them.
Crime prevention minister Norman Baker reacted angrily to suggestions his party were going soft on drugs.
"Nothing in the report talks about letting off drug dealers Scott free and that's not Lib Dem policy," he told Sky News.
"I fear this is Number 10 backpedalling because they have got inconvenient facts.
"The facts are we've got an independent study conducted by civil servants and some of my Conservative colleagues apparently don't like some of the evidence that has come out.
"But if you look at a tree, it's a tree."
Earlier Mr Baker told Sky: "What we need to do is ... stop criminalising people unfairly and to make sure that we don't lock people up, but rather deal with (drugs) as a health issue."
He was backed by Danny Kushlick, founder of Transform Drug Policy Foundation, who called the report a "historic moment".
"For the first time in over 40 years the Home Office has admitted that enforcing tough drug laws doesn't necessarily reduce levels of drug use," he said.
However, a Home Office spokesperson said: "This Government has absolutely no intention of decriminalising drugs.
"Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK."
Although completed several months ago, the report has been kept under wraps to be released alongside another study which recommends so-called legal highs be criminalised.
On this the coalition parties are agreed. Both support a ban on their sale, which has been welcomed by campaigners including Maryon Stewart, whose daughter, Hester, died in 2009 after taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and the legal substance GBL.
She told Sky News: "In that time, there've been as many crime prevention ministers as there have years, and it's been a really difficult journey.
"I think everyone agrees that there needs to be change, what's happening right now isn't working."
An opinion poll in The Sun suggests for the first time, most Britons believe the war on drugs can never be won.
A total of 71% of those surveyed said the war had failed, while 51% said it will always be doomed. The survey found 65% supported a review of drugs policy.
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