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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cannabis arrests fall by a third
Press Association
Friday 28 Jan 2005 Arrests for cannabis possession have fallen by a third in the first year since the drug was downgraded, official figures for England and Wales showed today. The Home Office said the move to re-classify the drug from Class B to Class C had saved police an estimated 199,000 hours of work. Cannabis is now ranked alongside anabolic steroids and some prescription anti-depressants, and its possession is generally not an arrestable offence. But ministers insisted cannabis use by young people had remained stable and was "significantly down" since April 1998. The Home Office's British crime survey suggested 28.2% of 16 to 24-year-olds used cannabis then, compared with 24.8% today. Former home secretary David Blunkett decided to re-classify cannabis so that officers could spend more time combating hard drugs such as heroin and crack. It was reclassified on January 29 last year but remains illegal. The figure of 199,000 saved hours was estimated from provisional data supplied by 26 of the 42 police forces in England and Wales, said a Home Office spokesman. The Home Office minister Caroline Flint said: "The government's drugs strategy focuses on tackling the Class A drugs which cause the most harm to communities, individuals and their families. "A year ago we reclassified cannabis on the recommendation of the advisory council on the misuse of drugs, so that the police could concentrate on the far more destructive Class A drugs. "One year on the picture is encouraging with significant savings in police time which can now be used to drive more serious drugs off our streets and make our communities safer."
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