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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Soft on drugs? David Laister 21 Jun 2003 Saturday 21 Jun 2003 Police in Grimsby have vowed to maintain their hard line on drugs, despite apparent soft sentencing by the town's magistrates. Less than a fortnight ago police seized tens of thousands of pounds worth of cannabis plants from an illegal Waltham drugs factory. The man responsible, William Christopher Stokoe, has been handed a conditional discharge by magistrates and ordered to pay UKP50 costs for growing the drug. He is paying that off at UKP5 a fortnight. Today, top officers in the town have underlined their stance on drugs. Commander of the Grimsby South Local Policing Team, Insp Brian Kelly, led the operation. He said: "Regardless of what happens to offenders at court, it will not dent our determination to stamp out drugs. "The sentencing matter is for the courts. It is the police's job to bring people to court and present the evidence. "This will not affect our policy." More than 100 plants were discovered in four outbuildings when police raided the Bradley Road property - the climax of a carefully planned, intelligence driven operation. Insp Kelly said the scale of the cultivation was such that if it hadn't been disturbed it could have been never-ending, with four stages of plant growth found, from seedlings to fully grown plants ready for harvesting for bush or resin in four different rooms. Grimsby police commander, Supt Sean White, said: "This was a successful police operation based upon information provided within the community. "The strength of the case was such that the defendant pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. The charge was appropriate and sentencing will always be a matter for the courts, taking into consideration the facts of the case, and also the background of the offender. "Clearly, this was a case of commercial cultivation and we have disrupted the supply of drugs from this address. The public may be a little confused as to the sentence awarded, given the size of the haul. "As always, sentencing is a matter for the courts." Andrew Horner, head of Grimsby CPS, said: "As the law stands, the prosecution cannot appeal against unduly lenient sentences in the magistrates' court. That power is reserved for a limited number of serious offences in the crown court. I cannot comment on the sentence in this case and I don't know what factors the court took into account when deciding the penalty, but the case law indicates that an immediate custodial sentence would normally be appropriate for cultivation on this scale." Presiding magistrates in the case, Margaret Barker and Ruth Sutcliffe, were unavailable for comment, but Phillip Houlden, clerk to the justices said: "The presiding Government's comments about cannabis are unhelpful. There has been talk of decriminalising it and reducing it to a class C drug."
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