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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cannabis law fails to free-up police
Hugh Dougherty, Home Affairs Correspondent London Evening Standard
Tuesday 30 Mar 2004 Massive confusion over new laws on cannabis is revealed today. Figures show many people are smoking cannabis in public because they wrongly believe it has been made legal. Front-line police are now facing people who "argue until they are blue in the face" that they are allowed to smoke cannabis - and end up being arrested as a result. The rise in cannabis use has come after the substance was downgraded from a class B to a class C drug at the end of January. The move was ordered by Home Secretary David Blunkett in an effort to slash the amount of police time spent dealing with cannabis users and let officers focus their efforts on class A drugs such as heroin. But the new figures show only a tiny drop in the number of offences dealt with by police - meaning vast amounts of police time is still being spent on arresting cannabis users. The Scotland Yard figures, released today to the Evening Standard, show police dealt with just five fewer offences involving the drug every day this February compared to the previous year - a fall of less than seven per cent. In total they arrested 2,012 cannabis users last month, the equivalent of 69 people every day. The number of arrests the previous February was 2,087, or 75 people each day. Every arrest takes an officer off the beat for up to three hours, meaning the equivalent of 25 Met police were tied up every day in February dealing with cannabis possession. Today rank-and-file police warned the failure to see a drop in arrests was because of massive public confusion over the drug's real status - which comes despite a UKP1 million advertising campaign to make clear that the drug is still illegal. Police have been ordered only to arrest people if there are aggravating circumstances, including smoking-cannabis near schools, repeatedly breaking the law or " flagrantly" disobeying officers. But today officers said they have seen an upsurge in the number of people openly smoking the drug, which gives them no choice but to make an arrest. Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said confusion among the public was to blame in the failure to see a dramatic fall in the number of arrests. Mr Smyth said: "It is no great surprise that the figures have hardly changed. We know anecdotally that many people consider cannabis is legal. Some people will argue with officers until they are blue in the face that what they have is legal - and inevitably it ends up with them being arrested." Today's figures also show there was actually a fall in the number of arrests in London for class A drugs - the most dangerous substances - in the same month. There were 19 arrests for possession of a class A substance each day this February, compared to 22 the previous year. The statistics are the first to be published by any British police force since the change to the law on cannabis and will be looked at carefully by Home Office officials. Scotland Yard is conducting its own analysis to find out exactly where and why cannabis arrests took place. The Standard first revealed the extent of confusion over the drug's status weeks before it was downgraded. A campaign was launched by the Home Office to warn that the drug remained illegal. But the adverts were only aimed at teenagers - and the Government itself admitted that almost 60 per cent of adults would be unaware of the campaign, raising serious doubts over its real value. --=======29C7BEA=======--
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