Pubdate: Mon, 21 Mar 2005
Source: Evening Standard (London, UK)
Copyright: 2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/914
Author: Paul Marinko
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

'CHAOS' WARNING OVER CANNABIS LAW

Any move to change the cannabis laws again would create chaos for
police and the public, the Government is warned today.

Police and experts spoke out as Home Secretary Charles Clarke asked an
independent advisory group to consider whether cannabis should be
reclassified after growing evidence emerged of its link to mental illness.

Mr Clarke's move came just over a year after his predecessor David
Blunkett downgraded the drug from class B to class C and ordered
police not to routinely arrest adults found smoking it.

But today senior police officers and the architect of the original
downgrading warned that another change in its status would only add to
existing confusion. Since downgrading the drug, the Government has
faced persistent warnings that the law is little understood and that
police struggle to understand how to enforce it.

Rick Naylor, president of the Superintendents' Association, said:
"There is a danger it could lead to confusion again because we are now
used to a new way of doing things.

"Since the declassification, cops on the street have been dealing with
cannabis in a very quick and efficient way.

"If we are going to start arresting people again it is going to mean
us altering our focus, because all the time that has been saved from
dealing with cannabis since the declassification would change.

"We would have to ... find extra resources because that police time
has been used on other things."

He said the reclassification had freed time for the police to deal
with "more serious things".

Lady Runciman, chairwoman of the Police Foundation inquiry whose
report originally called for cannabis to be downgraded, said the
public would also be confused.

Mr Clarke asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to review
the reclassification of cannabis in the light of new research
suggesting it could be more harmful than previously thought. But this
was "entirely unnecessary", Lady Runciman said. "I think it adds to
the great confusion created by the original move [to reclassify] which
was entirely sensible," she added.

British law on cannabis is already among the most stringent in Europe,
she pointed out.

Recent studies have linked cannabis with increased mental health
problems and has stepped up pressure on the Government to re-examine
the classification.

The change last year means cannabis is no longer a routinely
arrestable offence and it has increased police discretion on how to
handle people caught in possession of the drug. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake