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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Warm response in Brixton as years of restrictions on pot
Terri Judd The Independent
Saturday 07 Jul 2001 Dean Alltone Ellis Jnr III stretched his arms ahead of him to demonstrate the moment he was handcuffed. "They arrested me for one spliff," he said indignantly. "I had no more gear on me." Then he performed an animated tableau of the day he was "bundled into a police car", photographed, fingerprinted and held in a cell for 90 minutes. "I got stopped one day," interjected Marcus Rankin, fellow Rastafarian and shop-owner, over the booming early Jamaican ska music. "The policeman asked me if I 'got anything I shouldn't have' and I showed him my bag of weed. He said, 'Put it away'." These are examples of the diverse ways officers in Brixton, south London, have been dealing with the relatively minor offence of cannabis possession. The rank-and-file officers, fed up with the time spent on such arrests or fearful of being accused of corruption if they informally confiscate the drug, prompted the borough Commander, Brian Paddick, to start a controversial experiment this week. Those caught with small amounts of cannabis in the Lambeth area were not arrested but given a warning, had the drug confiscated and their name kept on file locally. But the record cannot be cited in court proceedings. Commander Paddick, a respected and progressive officer, has gone out on a limb with the six-month pilot project. "Finite police resources are facing such serious issues as open-market crack dealing and related gun crime, street robbery, burglary and violence against the community and hate crime," he said. "They are seen by all as priorities." David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has already agreed that hard drugs should be the priority. Messrs Ellis and Rankin certainly supported the police move. "It is time they got rid of this pompous attitude to cannabis and legalised it," said Mr Rankin, a teetotaller apart from the odd glass of Guinness. "It only makes you sleep or laugh. Drink makes people aggressive and kills billions a year - weed doesn't." Mr Ellis added: "In Brixton the majority of people smoke, lawyers and doctors smoke. It's the way we chill out after work." The first person to get a warning under the new scheme was Chris Baldwin, a 51-year-old who has been smoking marijuana for 30 years to alleviate pain. He lit up outside Brixton police station on Monday morning. It took more than 20 minutes before the constabulary could be persuaded to take action. Mr Baldwin said: "They took my name and address and asked me if I knew what I was doing was wrong. We agreed to disagree and I accepted their warning." Commander Paddick, 42, who was a sergeant during the area's 1981 riots, is understood to view the criminalisation of those possessing small amounts of the drug as a potential spark for racial conflict. Jennifer Douglas, the chairwoman of the local community police consultative commit- tee, said yesterday: "'Stop and search' is used very widely by officers wanting to get their numbers up and feeling they can get someone for use of cannabis. The usual profile of the suspect is young, black people. The whole thing is suspect. Any move away from that can only be a good move. "It is really refreshing to have a borough commander who wants to work with, as opposed to against, the community," she said. A spokesman for Lambeth police said: "The support we have had from the community has been shown across all ethnic backgrounds." Attitudes to the pilot scheme in Brixton appear to be divided by age rather than race. Many young white professionals are equally supportive. Tim Counihan, a 24-year-old psychiatric nurse, said: "I think cannabis is OK as long as it is not abused. I know a lot of people who smoke it. But if you are going to relax the drugs law, something has to be put in place to support people who are abusing it." Many of the older members of the Caribbean and African community were vehemently against it. "I don't like drugs and I don't approve of this," said Les Thomas, 61, a Jamaican-born road-sweeper eyeing a group of youngsters near by with obvious suspicion. But Roger Howard, of the drugs charity Drugscope, insisted the scheme was a "pragmatic" approach to the issue. "If it proves successful we could then see its replication elsewhere," he said.
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