Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 Source: Sunday Times (UK) Copyright: 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd. Contact: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/439 Author: Maurice Chittenden Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Brian+Paddick YARD CHIEF ATTACKS CANNABIS REGRADING THE senior police officer who launched a pioneering scheme to relax enforcement of the cannabis law now says that the drug should not have been downgraded. Brian Paddick, a deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, describes the decision by David Blunkett, the former home secretary, to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug as "all pain and no gain". Paddick was a borough commander in Lambeth, south London, in 2001 when he set up a pilot scheme in nearby Brixton whereby anyone caught with a small amount of cannabis was warned rather than arrested. This was widely seen as one of the catalysts for Blunkett's changing of the law two years ago to regrade the drug. But the decision to allow police to retain the power of arrest has caused widespread confusion about the legal status of cannabis. Paddick says his own scheme was based on an operational need to concentrate on class A drugs such as heroin. "By allowing police officers to continue to arrest for possession of small amounts of cannabis, and by allowing police commanders to declare their areas zero tolerance zones for cannabis, the reclassification was unlikely to divert much police time towards more serious crime. "At the same time, reclassifying created confusion suggesting, quite wrongly, that cannabis was less harmful at a time when stronger strains were becoming more common and there was evidence of a link with mental health." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake