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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drug move could save police millions
The Telegraph Wednesday 13 Mar 2002 DAVID BLUNKETT'S plan to downgrade cannabis to the same category as tranquillisers such as valium could save police at least £38 million a year, it was claimed today. The independent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation also says the move could also vastly improve police officers' relations with the public. The study reveals 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". The report 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 - entitled Times They Are A-Changing, after Bob Dylan's 1964 protest movement anthem - dismissed the argument that arresting someone for cannabis offences can often lead to officers discovering more serious crimes. 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. The financial savings which could be made by changing the law on cannabis could range from £350 million a year - which was "likely to be an over-estimate" - to £38 million, the report said.
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