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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Dope change could save cops £38m
Sky News Wednesday 13 Mar 2002 Home Secretary David Blunkett's plans to downgrade cannabis to the same category as tranquilisers such as Valium could save police at least £38m a year, according to an independent report.It also said the move would vastly improve officers' relations with the public. The study, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, revealed huge variations across the country in the way offenders are dealt with for possession of cannabis. Describing the chaotic way police currently deal with the drug, the authors said some officers "specialise" in arresting marijuana users, while others have "effectively decriminalised cannabis in their everyday working practices". 'Make sense' The report - entitled 'Times They Are A-Changing' after Bob Dylan's 1964 protest movement anthem - concluded: "The chances of being arrested depend on the force areas where an offence is discovered and on the experience and attitudes of individual officers". Co-author Professor Mike Hough said the Lambeth experiment - in which Metropolitan Police officers have dealt with cannabis users by confiscating the drug and giving an informal warning - should be extended across Britain. "It would make sense to reclassify cannabis to Class C," he said. "There would be significant gains all round." The report also dismissed the argument that arresting someone for cannabis offences can often lead to officers discovering other more serious crimes. Firearms Analysis of 30,000 custody records found just 857 where cannabis had been the initial offence and only 11 of these involved the serious crimes of burglary, robbery, drug dealing or firearms. Records also revealed that just 3% of police officers make a fifth of the total number of arrests for possession of cannabis. In the first relaxation of British drugs laws for 30 years, Mr Blunkett wants to move the drug from Class B to Class C, meaning possession will no longer be an arrestable offence and ranking its harmfulness alongside tranquilizsers and anabolic steroids.
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