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UK: Met chief warns of cannabis 'U-turn'
John Steele The Telegraph
Friday 20 May 2005 The legal downgrading of cannabis should not be reversed, Britain's most senior policeman said yesterday. Sir Ian Blair, the Comissioner of the Metropolitan Police, added that if the Government re-classified cannabis from a class C to a class B drug - reversing the change made last year - his force would "lobby fiercely" for the offence to be dealt with by the issuing of fixed penalty notices, rather than arrests and prosecutions. Sir Ian Blair, the Comissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair, Comissioner of the Metropolitan Police His comments come after the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, indicated that the Government may be having second thoughts about the downgrading of cannabis, one of the most controversial decisions of David Blunkett's period as home secretary. While there have been misgivings in the police about "mixed messages" sent to young people by the legal downgrading of cannabis, it is acknowledged that it has saved a lot of time previously spent filling forms after people were arrested for carrying small amounts of the drug. Sir Ian said his view, "personally and professionally," was that it was "a waste of time in terms of police dealing with possession of small amounts because the courts and the Crown Prosecution Service have persistently refused to do anything about it". Whereas class B drug possession is an arrestable offence, people are now only arrested for possession of class C drugs in "aggravated circumstances". If it were re-classified, Sir Ian said, "we would be pushing very hard for it to be a fixed penalty notice offence". Shortly before the general election, the Home Secretary asked the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs to explore whether recent medical evidence linking cannabis to long-term mental health problems might cause a review of the decision to downgrade the drug.
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