UK - Police reject a tougher action on cannabis- The Guardian article, May 1st 2008

[Benga]

From the Guardian's online edition,
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Article history
The Guardian, Thursday May 1 2008

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Police reject tougher action on cannabis

Brown plan to upgrade drug will not change 'confiscate and warn' stance

Police will not adopt a tougher approach to cases of simple possession of cannabis when ministers upgrade the legal status of the drug to class B, the Guardian can disclose.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) confirmed last night that the current policy of "confiscate and warn" would continue, despite Gordon Brown's determination to reclassify the drug in an attempt to "send a tough message" to young people about its use.

Chief constables are debating whether or not fixed penalty fines should be available alongside cannabis warnings. But the basic approach of saving police time by not making an arrest and taking the offender to the police station to be charged, introduced four years ago, will remain.

Before cannabis was downgraded to class C in 2004, 58% of possession cases formally dealt with by police ended in arrest and formal caution, while 42% were taken to court.

Campaigners for drug law reform last night questioned the relevance of the drug classification system, which dates back to 1971, and its ability to send a message.

Roger Howard, chief executive of the UK Drug Policy Commission, and a former government drugs adviser, said: "There will be no new powers or resources for policing if cannabis is made class B, and cannabis warnings can still be issued instead of arrest."

He said this underlined the muddle at the heart of government over the purpose of a drug classification system which was unlikely ever to be able to "send a message to young people". Since cannabis had moved from class B to class C, the number of schoolchildren who think it is fine to try cannabis had halved, he said.

It is expected that Acpo guidance to police officers will use different language from existing guidelines to stress the discretion that is available to constables to take more robust action in cases involving repeat offenders or aggravating factors such as disorder or evidence of organised crime.

An Acpo spokesman last night: "The key will be the discretion for officers to strike the right balance. We do not want to criminalise young people who are experimenting." However, he stressed that cases involving "aggravating factors" were more likely to see an arrest and prosecution.

When the police announced their support for regrading cannabis as a class B drug this year, Simon Byrne, Merseyside's assistant chief constable and the Acpo lead on policing cannabis, entered a little-noticed but crucial caveat to the police position. He said that since cannabis had been downgraded there had been growing concerns over increased potency, the rise of "homegrown" cannabis farms and a perception that its legal status meant it was seen as a low policing priority.

But he added that the police had supported the decision to downgrade the drug four years ago because of "the disproportionate time spent by frontline police officers in dealing with offenders in possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal use. Should the decision be taken to reclassify cannabis to a class B, Acpo believes the service should retain this flexibility in dealing with instances of possession on the street, including the discretion to issue warnings in appropriate circumstances".

The 2005 Serious and Organised Crime and Policing Act introduced new criteria for making an arrest which emphasised that it had to be necessary because, for example, the officer doubted whether he had been given a real name or a valid address by the offender. The number of cannabis warnings issued has spiralled to more than 100,000 since its legal status was downgraded; that forms an important part of the ability of the police to meet their national target for the number of offences brought to justice.

In legal terms, the move back to class B means the maximum prison sentence for possession will be increased from two to five years.

Reputation Comments on this post:

great news

[Evil GIR]

Personaly Swim dosent give a dam if they introduce the death penality, if they want me to stop smoking then that is the only way. Even if sent down Swim would still be skinning up in prision, screw the "drug tests". I woudnt give a dam if they caught me and added an extra 10000 years to my jail term, The only person who could make me stop is me or lung cancer.

But brown is gona be kicked out soon anyway and like blair swim hopes the door hslams in his face on the way out.

[stoneinfocus]

The professionals of the police finally see some pragmatism, since 2004, but it´s still like medi-evil times considering penalties on drugsm whre there shouldn´t be any, as the rule.

"Aggrevating force" is relative and if some officers don´t like the colour of your skin and the fact of drug-possesion, they could do anything.
I hope, that some time, most people will understand, that a law has to be enforced, and just because someone is getting always away, it still means, that some will get caught and punished by this law, which even creates more unjustice and will have no solidarity of other "offenders" as these are thinking, it was easy getting away with it.

Wasn´t cannabis scheduled down, by a conspirative www-campaing, which planned to crash the system, by overloading it (self-incrimination of all reefers at a given day or time-frame)? ;-)

[Nature Boy]

This must be pretty humiliating news to Gordon Brown. Essentially, he's not even in control of his own police force something that makes him look extremely weak politically. I can't see him lasting much longer either.

[aerozeppelin123]

Yes I think there's quite a strong feeling that Gordon Brown is weak and indecisive. I believe the Conservatives are gaining popularity, personally from what I can see I would actually prefer David Cameron as a Prime Minister to Brown, he annoys me greatly, especially with his meaningless moral posturing and tough-talk about cannabis. Good to hear that the police have some common sense in the issue, I disagree with our drug laws but don't blame the police, they're just trying to do their job. I like the fact that he said "We do not want to criminalise young people who are experimenting".

[doublezero]

when swim was last in the police station he was asking the police about cannabis and most of them didnt see a problem with people smoking cannabis or growing persy. They seemed to really hate the goverment, making them fill in form after form and making the binge drinking culture worse by letting pubs and clubs open all hours and having to do extra policing because of it.

[Panthers007]

Yup. Enact tougher and dumber laws - and get the people drunk so if they protest, you can arrest them for being drunk & disorderly. Brilliant.

[Bajeda]

This sort of thing brings a smile to my face. Good for the cops, they have better things to do I'm sure.

[TMM]

I heard about this through word of mouth a few days ago, and I'm glad it's actually true.

I just wish I could be more excited about the prospect of Brown being gone. As if there were anything better waiting in the wings.