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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Sco: Police chief is going soft on cannabis
Daily Record (UK)
Thursday 13 Apr 2000 Subj: UK: Sco: Police chief is going soft on cannabis Date: 13 Apr, 2000 Source: Daily Record (UK) POLICE CHIEF IS GOING SOFT ON CANNABIS POT SHOT: Orr says targeting dope users is 'waste of resources' SCOTLAND'S top policeman yesterday claimed that arresting cannabis smokers would be a waste of time and money. In an exclusive Record interview, Strathclyde Chief Constable John Orr said: "I could send officers out today and they could arrest 5000 people smoking cannabis." But he said that would be "a waste of my officers' resources" and stressed his main target was "the dealers of death". Orr insisted he was by no means advocating the legalisation of cannabis and added: "It's a matter of priorities in how we police the drugs debate. "If you allocate inordinate resources - very scarce valuable resources - to attempt to identify every person that is smoking cannabis you take your eye off the ball with the more serious hard drugs. "All I am saying is that I think it would be a waste of valuable police resources to go out there targeting cannabis smokers when there are more insidious individuals out there killing people." Orr, whose brother Jim is head of the new Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency, is understood to accept that public attitudes to cannabis use are changing. But he dismissed suggestions that there was no link between cannabis and harder drugs. He said: "That is not the case. A dealer will sell you, or anybody, cannabis, coke, heroin and all sorts of pills at the one time." He also ridiculed claims that it was a happy drug with no negative consequences for society. Orr said: "There is evidence of a small number of people who mix alcohol with cannabis and it can have quite an effect on them. "There is also evidence of long-term cannabis users who graduate to harder drugs and end up as one of our unfortunate drug deaths. "If you look at the history of sad drug deaths we have had, some of them started on cannabis." However, the chief constable does support calls for an inquiry into the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. He said: "There is a growing body of evidence that it can have benefits for people who suffer from arthritis and other diseases. "So let's have a debate about the therapeutic benefits of cannabis - I think it is quite proper that it should be the subject of real scientific and legal assessment." Orr warned that any move to legalise cannabis for medicinal use would need tough new laws to stop people abusing the system. He is particularly worried that prescriptions could be sold or passed on to others and said: "Any change would need to be well thought-out and well-regulated so we don't get into the mire that some other European countries are in at the moment." Orr's views on the subject are worth listening to - he has presided over a five per cent drop in the number of misuse of drugs cases in the last year. That figure will be confirmed later today when the chief constable has the welcome task of revealing that crime in Strathclyde - the country's largest force area - has tumbled to a 20-year low. The total number of reported crimes has fallen by 15,000 - or almost seven per cent. Robberies, break-ins, drug offences, vandalism and motoring crimes - the areas of most public concern - are all down. The only blip is in the area of violent crime, where the figures have shown a big increase. Murders, for example, have risen by 26 to 85 - but all of these cases have been solved. Orr said: "If you talk to the public, or survey them as we do, it is clear what concerns them. "It's housebreakings, cars getting broken into, street disorder, dog fouling that they talk about. They don't like their tranquility being eroded by being perceived to be threatened by yobbos at a street corner or by people behaving threateningly at a bus shelter. "These are the kind of things people worry about." The chief constable added: "They will never mention murder. There have been 80-odd murders in a population of 2.5million in Strathclyde in the last year. "Every murder is a tragedy for the relatives that are left - last year we cleared up every one of them." Orr denied that his tough policing style, which has involved mounting a series of high-profile crackdowns on individual crimes, was based on harsh New York-style tactics. He insisted: "This is not zero tolerance." He added: "It is all about disruptive policing. Yes, you take flak with that. "Yes, I sometimes get civil libertarians, quite properly, saying to me that perhaps the public don't like this. "But where are the complaints? I have received no complaints from members of the public." Orr said his job was to give people confidence to go about their lives without fear. And what might seem insignificant things - like children ringing the door bells of old people or vandals digging up someone's prized plants - were very important to the victims. Orr said: "A woman in her 70s said to me the other day, 'What are you doing about these people chewing gum?' "She was pointing out all the chewing gum which had impacted into the street and wanted to know what the police were doing about it. "I don't mind that. If ever we have a time when the public don't expect the police to do something, then we shouldn't be here. "What I have to do is listen to the public - reflect what the public tell me." With just over 12 months to go until he steps down from the top job, the chief constable has no plans to soften his stance. He said: "I will not be deflected from what I think is right on behalf of the public. "If that means occasionally sticking my head above the parapet then, yes, I think the public expect me to do that."
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