Pubdate: Mon, 09 Apr 2001
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2001
Contact:  http://www.ft.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154
Author: Jimmy Burns, Social Affairs Correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POLICE TO TAKE FLEXIBLE STANCE WITH CANNABIS USERS

Police are being given the go-ahead to adopt a more flexible approach 
towards cannabis use in order to free additional resources to combat hard 
drugs.

Ministers have not opposed a pilot scheme being developed in south London 
where police are cautioning people caught in possession of cannabis, rather 
than arresting them.

According to area commander Brian Paddick, one of the Metropolitan Police's 
modernisers, the policy is aimed at saving time and using more officers on 
the streets to deal with the threat of more addictive and crime-related 
drugs such as crack.

Despite meeting resistance from some Conservative party politicians, 
Whitehall insiders predict the practice will spread among the police, as 
the government's drugs policy becomes more focused and area commanders seek 
to make effective use of their budgets in bringing crime rates down.

The government is raising the profile of its anti-drugs strategy, drawing 
sports stars such as Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United 
football club, into the next phase of its Positive Futures Campaign, aimed 
at steering young people away from drug dealers.

Gordon Brown, the chancellor, Jack Straw, the home secretary, and cabinet 
minister Ian McCartney on Monday detailed a UKP 300m package which will 
give police commanders and community leaders flexibility over the 
application of funds.

More than 370 police and local authority-led crime and disorder reduction 
partnerships in England and Wales will get UKP 220m from funding announced 
in last month's Budget to deliver local strategies, capable of generating 
the support and involvement of the community.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager