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UK: Cannabis reform pioneered in London
Reuters
Tuesday 23 Oct 2001 LONDON (Reuters) - A police chief's controversial experiment to ease cannabis laws in one of London's toughest areas is being credited for paving the way for Home Secretary David Blunkett's reforms. The government's plan to make cannabis possession a less serious offence -- outlined to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday -- was pioneered in the Brixton area of south London. Faced with violent crime and cutbacks in an area which has witnessed sporadic rioting for 20 years, the chief of Lambeth police decided to take a radical step. Commander Brian Paddick ordered his officers to stop arresting people caught with cannabis from July 2, to allow police to focus on more serious crimes. Oxford-educated Paddick, 42, said it was a question of juggling his limited resources. "We are not condoning the possession of cannabis," he said in a newspaper interview after the launch of the initiative. "We are saying that at this moment the police are having to deal with this offence informally because there are too many more serious offences that we need to spend our time on first." Under the Lambeth scheme, people caught with small amounts of cannabis had to hand over the drug, sign a form and accept a police warning. The process takes about 10 minutes, after which the offender is allowed to walk free. Paddick insists his officers are not soft on drugs. "We are not decriminalising cannabis and I hope that people will get fed up once they realise that they will be out of pocket if they walk round openly smoking cannabis," he said. The softly-softly approach in Lambeth caught the attention of senior officers and the Home Office. The government now aims to recategorise cannabis as a "Class C" drug rather than "Class B", putting it on a par with anabolic steroids and anti-depressants. Possession will remain illegal, with a maximum of two years' jail, but most users should be let off with a police warning. "Our main focus has to be on the Class A drugs, heroin and cocaine, those are the drugs that lead to levels of theft to feed the habit ... and to health problems," Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth told Sky News on Wednesday. The Home Office said 68 percent of the 120,000 drug arrests in 1999 were cannabis related. "Dealing with each arrest takes two to three hours," a Home Office spokesman told Reuters.
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