Pubdate: Fri, 09 Feb 2001
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2001 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  75 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER, England
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Website: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/guardian/
Forum: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/BBS/News/0,2161,Latest|Topics|3,00.html

WHY ARE THEY SO AFRAID? WISE ADVICE ON CANNABIS IS BEING IGNORED

Who says this is a populist government?  Almost half the public believes 
cannabis should not be illegal and 99% of us think it should have the 
lowest policing priority.  Yet pot continues to dominate the policing of 
drugs: more than 90% of all offences are for possession, of which 75% 
involve cannabis.  It drives police stop and search operations - more than 
1 m in four years - with 90,000 people a year nicked for possession of pot. 
And yet this week ministers have once again refused to reclassify the drug.

This government also claims to believe in evidence-based policy making.  A 
two-year study by the Police Foundation's national commission on the misuse 
of drugs showed the classification of harmfulness by the 1971 Act no longer 
reflected scientific, medical or sociological evidence.  The commission 
included a leading pharmacologist, two chief constables, and eminent drug 
advisers.  they documented the degree to which cases involving the drug 
distort the criminal justice system, with huge variations in police 
cautions (from 22% to 72% of all cases depending on the force) and equally 
large disparities in sentencing.  So much for improving young people's 
respect for the law.  Far from creating the certainty that good laws 
create, cannabis has become a legal lottery.  The commission urged 
ministers to down-grade cannabis from B to C class, making it a minor 
non-arrestable offence.

It has taken the Commons select committee on home affairs to prompt this 
week's ministerial response to the report's 80 recommendations. Only two 
concessions have been made.  The 50% of offenders who get cautions will no 
longer have to declare them to prospective employers; and new guidelines 
will urge a more lenient approach to people caught supplying friends.  Even 
the Daily Mail found this a totally inadequate response.  There will be no 
sensible debate this side of the election, but will ministers please be 
bolder post voting day.
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MAP posted-by: Beth