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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Easing cannabis laws would save money-report
Reuters
Wednesday 13 Mar 2002 LONDON (Reuters) - Relaxing the cannabis laws would save around 50 million pounds a year and free up the equivalent of 500 police officers, a study has found. Some 69,000 people were cautioned or convicted for cannabis possession in 1999, with police spending an average of four hours on each offence, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said in a report. Home Secretary David Blunkett has proposed removing police powers of arrest for possession by downgrading cannabis to a Class C drug from B. Mike Hough, co-author of the report, said such a relaxation would also have non-financial benefits. "Reclassification is likely to remove some of the friction between police and communities that currently hinders co-operation in tackling more serious crime," he said. The study, carried out for the Foundation by the South Bank University's Criminal Policy Research Unit, found that arrests for possession of cannabis very rarely led to the discovery of more serious crimes. Researchers said an analysis of 857 custody cases where cannabis possession had been the original offence found only 11 which led to charges for serious crimes such as burglary, drug dealing or gun offences. With most police officers operating in pairs, the study said 770,000 officer hours, or the time of 500 officers a year, were spent processing cannabis offences. At a rough cost of 500 pounds a case, this amounted over a year to 38 million pounds. Adding sentencing costs, it said the total cost of policing cannabis offences came to 50 million pounds a year.
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