In truth, drugs have been dealt in Coldharbour Lane, just down from the Ritzy, for years. What impinged the area on the national consciousness as a drugs soukh was the decision by Brian Paddick, the former police commander for Lambeth, with Brixton at its core, to relax the application of the cannabis laws in the borough.
Mr Paddick's concession, which sparked a national furore that saw his own lifestyle brought into question and his departure from Lambeth (he has since been rehabilitated and his career has continued its upward path), was made two years ago. Today, nationally, possession of cannabis is downgraded as a criminal offence, provoking an almighty row about the dangers of the drug and the conflicting signals the Government is sending out, especially to the young and impressionable.
Two years ago, I went to Brixton to explore the effects of Paddick's Law for the Evening Standard. I found that local people were broadly supportive of the change - provided it achieved what he intended it should: the freeing up of police resources and time to go after serious crime, the supply of hard drugs and, in particular, the crack houses that had sprung up across the borough. Last week, I went back, to see what has happened. At first sight, the answer is, not much. Now, as then, there is still an edginess on the streets and the sense of a district that at any moment could explode in violence and wailing sirens.
There are still drug dealers, and users, in evidence. At a bus stop at the top end of Coldharbour Lane, on the way up to Clapham, two men are smoking a spliff while waiting for a bus. They make no attempt to disguise what they're doing - they can't anyway, because the smell of the powerful skunk is so strong.
BUT Brixton has changed.
Gone from the stairwell and entrance at the Tube station are the crackheads who used to make the lives of commuters hell, hassling them for money, offering them drugs. In their place are two uniformed police officers.
You can walk along Brixton Road and nobody hisses they've got stuff to sell.
Down Coldharbour Lane, two pubs where anything, literally, was available to anyone who wanted it, are shut.
Another thing you notice is that druggies are less obvious. "There are less crazy-eyed people on the streets," said Henry Baird, a long-time Brixton resident. Mr Baird, who lives just off Brixton Hill, between the Fridge and the prison, says he's noticed a significant difference in mood. " Brixton is a lot safer than it used to be."
His observation is supported by the crime figures. Street crime in Lambeth has fallen 42 per cent in the past 18 months. In Brixton centre, the fall is 36 per cent since September last year. In October 2001, there were 916 reported muggings and other street crime in Lambeth, the highest ever figure.
Last December that total was down to 338.
At Lambeth Town Hall, Charles Anglin, a Liberal Democrat councillor and member of the coalition with the Tories that wrested control from Labour, rattles off a stream of statistics. "One and a half years ago, there was a street market in drugs of £12million on the stretch between the station and KFC alone," says Anglin.
"Now it's been transformed."
The impressive Anglin is a new breed of Lambeth councillor, overseeing community safety schemes, determined to make his borough a more desirable place in which to live and work. Before everyone gets carried-away, it's worth remembering that Lambeth still has the highest incidence of street crime in the country. But things are looking up. " Brixton has got better," says Paul Twyman of the Lambeth Police Consultative Committee. "It's true you can be intimidated if you look down some of the side roads and see clusters of figures and kids on bikes toing and froing - you don't have to be a genius to work out what they're doing - but, overall, it's better."
The temptation is to say that it's all down to Mr Paddick, that his initiative did allow his officers to concentrate on what was actually blighting the area: the crack dens and preponderance of street dealers in class A drugs. Their existence drew cocaine and heroin addicts to Lambeth who themselves committed crimes to fuel their habits. Under Mr Paddick, his immediate successor, Brian Moore, and now, Chief Superintendent Richard Quinn, the police, working with Lambeth council and community groups, have cracked down on crack.
In the last eight months alone, said Quinn, 300 addresses across Lambeth have been raided for crack cocaine.
He now has more officers on the street than ever before. Rachel Heywood, chairwoman of the Brixton Area Forum's Crime Working Group, said: "Paddick made an intelligent decision in response to what the majority of people in Brixton saw as the big problem, namely Class As, heroin and crack. Dealing with class As has made people feel safer, plus the cannabis experiment led to new levels of trust between the police and the community. It removed the tension and was a response to what they were lobbying for."
SO, is Mr Paddick to be slapped on the back, his scheme deemed an unqualified success, responsible for turning the tide against crime in the borough? No.
His relaxation of the cannabis laws was deeply flawed. By singling out Lambeth for the experiment and not including other boroughs, it appeared as though this was a problem unique to Lambeth, which it wasn't. Worse still, it had a negative effect, of drawing "drugs tourists" into the area.
For many people in Brixton, cannabis use was never a major issue. Suddenly, it became one and the place was a magnet for dealers and smokers from all over.
"It was very evident that it gave Brixton, and Brixton town centre especially, a clear image of somewhere where people could come and buy drugs - whether cannabis or class A," says Jonathan Toy, head of Lambeth council's Community Safety department. "It was seen as a place that was incredibly open and that kind of perception only added to the problem." Dealers, said Mr Toy, saw Brixton, "as a business opportunity to access other markets, not just cannabis".
Lambeth and Brixton, in particular, were seen across Britain and internationally as the place to get drugs. At Mediterranean airports, recalls Mr Heywood, stickers appeared, exhorting travellers, if they needed drugs while in Britain, to go to Brixton. "The experiment for Lambeth has not made a positive difference to its communities," said Mr Toy, "It's not done anything for the urban debate and it created more baggage for us."
At the police station, Mr Quinn says he can "take aspects of success or failure" from the relaxation. "Is it a success when kids think cannabis is legal and they can smoke it legally?" asks Mr Quinn, because, he claims, that was one of the results it had. There's no doubt, too, that outsiders flocked to Lambeth because they thought cannabis and possibly other drugs were legal, or at least the police wouldn't mind. "Fifty per cent of the people arrested here for drugs use don't live here," says Mr Quinn, "They came because they thought it was an easy touch."
The police and community drive against crack has had a huge impact. It's been joined, too, by a new effort to clean up the borough.
Associating Lambeth with any drugs, cannabis included, is now frowned upon. Even the organiser of the Legalise Cannabis March, a traditional fixture on the Brixton calendar, are no longer guaranteed such a warm welcome.
Places in the borough that became publicly identified with drugs, even soft ones such as cannabis, have been hit - hence the closure of the pubs near Loughborough Junction. But if the attitude has hardened, why do Mr Quinn and his fellow officers tolerate the dealers outside the Ritzy? "They've been corralled into a small area," he says.
Shutting them down and also ending once and for all the trade in Coldharbour Lane, explains Mr Quinn, is not so simple. Drug dealing is well embedded in the locality and, he points out, this is Brixton: racial tension is never far below the surface and the police have to move cautiously. A mass police raid on the dealers in Coldharbour Lane, for example, might spark a full-scale riot. But, stresses Mr Quinn, don't be fooled into thinking something won't be done.
Mr Quinn has a reputation for toughness. Big and burly, he is liked by his fellow officers, and by the community. Last week he was on patrol in Brixton Road when he spotted a man smoking a joint in a telephone booth. Brixton's most senior police officer promptly arrested him and took him to the police station.
Subsequently, the man, who was a foreigner, was deported.
Cannabis may be being downgraded from class B to class C but Mr Quinn is clear: the police won't tolerate people openly smoking or dealing in the drug, not in Lambeth.
The law may be changing but Lambeth is also changing. For the better.
