Police Urged to Chill Out on Cannabis Arrests

closer2fine

http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/353815|oddlyenough|09-12-2003::10:05|reuters.html

Police Urged to Chill Out on Cannabis Arrests

Email this story Sep 12, 9:45 am ET By Pete Harrison

LONDON (Reuters) - Police chiefs urged their officers Friday to take a more relaxed approach to cannabis in line with a new policy that will effectively leave Britons free to enjoy the drug in private.

The guidance came as Home Secretary David Blunkett handed Parliament a draft order to downgrade the drug from Class B to the low-risk Class C to allow police to focus resources on hard drugs like heroin.

The shift in policy is likely to take effect in January.

"There will be a presumption against arrest, except where public order is at risk, or where children are vulnerable," said Blunkett.

"After reclassification, most offences of cannabis possession by adults will result in a police warning and confiscation of the drug," he added.

Officers on the street would be left to decide the maximum weight at which cannabis smokers could claim their supplies were for personal use and not dealing, said Andy Hayman, drugs spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers.

"If we start making statements about weights... those who deal in drugs will just make sure they've got possession of a drug just below the weight," he told BBC radio.

Seizures of hard drugs have reached a record high, government figures show, with heroin up 16 percent year-on-year in 2001. But cannabis still accounted for more than seven out of 10 drug seizures.

Hayman said the rationale for existing drug laws -- that people who tried cannabis were often led on to harder drugs -- had been disproved.

"The theory of 'gateway' drugs doesn't stand up," he said. "The evidence does not support that."

Hamas

heathen

"The theory of 'gateway' drugs doesn't stand up," he said. "The evidence does not support that."
I just wonder what idiot came up with that one . I never believed that . I think alcohol is a far more deadly drug than marry jane or heroine even . People either like to drink or they don't . I can agree that if heroine were more available that more people would definately do it because I think some people are more into experimentation than others. I wish they would move to decriminalize marry jane in america as well . Hemp itself is one of the most useful products on the planet .

Trauma_Hound

I just wonder what idiot came up with that one . I never believed that . I think alcohol is a far more deadly drug than marry jane or heroine even . People either like to drink or they don't . I can agree that if heroine were more available that more people would definately do it because I think some people are more into experimentation than others. I wish they would move to decriminalize marry jane in america as well . Hemp itself is one of the most useful products on the planet .

Your absolutely right, I never got that one, I never tried anything harder than pot, except when I had been drinking.

funkyderek

"The theory of 'gateway' drugs doesn't stand up," he said. "The evidence does not support that."
I just wonder what idiot came up with that one . I never believed that .

The argument has always seemed to be that those who use Class A drugs (heroin crack etc.) mostly started on cannabis and that, therefore, cannabis leads almost inevitably to the use of harder drugs. I've seen this debated on dozens of news programmes, and am still amazed that nobody on either side of the debate ever seems to mention or even be aware that this is a completely backwards way of looking at the issue.

What should be considered is not how many of those who use hard drugs started with cannabis (inevitably close to 100%), but rather, how many of those who use cannabis eventually turn to harder drugs. It turns out, that's a fairly small percentage and that most cannabis users never graduate to harder drugs.

Of course, because cannabis and harder drugs are generally sold by the same people, it's generally quite easy for cannabis users to experiment, but that could be easily resolved by legalising cannabis. Then ordinary cannabis users would have no reason to be in contact with those who deal in heroin or crack cocaine.