Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jul 2002
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Author: Nick Hopkins, Vikram Dodd

POLICE CHIEF SCORNS CANNABIS PILOT CRITICS

As Blunkett Decides Whether To Reclassify Drug, Pioneer At Centre Of 
Lambeth Row Disputes Opponents' Evidence

The controversial police commander who pioneered the cannabis pilot project 
in Lambeth today condemns his critics, saying they have consistently failed 
to tell the truth about what is really happening in the borough by relying 
on anecdote rather than facts.

Writing exclusively in the Guardian to mark the first anniversary of the 
launch of the project, Mr Paddick says there is no evidence to show that 
children are at more risk of being drawn into a drug culture, or that 
Lambeth has become a destination for drug tourists - two of the main 
concerns raised by opponents to the initiative.

"Children at risk may be a perception rather than a reality ... if there 
seems to be more children smoking, perhaps they are being more blatant 
about it, or maybe people are more aware now of what has been happening in 
Lambeth for years?

Of drug tourism, he says: "The fact is cannabis and other drugs are so 
easily available in all parts of London, and in other parts of the country, 
who would want to come to Brixton for them?

"Particularly when you consider the way Brixton is portrayed in the media 
as some kind of dangerous, lawless, wasteland (another gross exaggeration). 
Drug tourism appears to be the expectation rather than the reality."

Mr Paddick accepts that there is considerable confusion about the project, 
but believes that a relentless media campaign against him and the 
experiment is at least partly to blame for the mixed messages.

He does, however, have the support of some senior officers. Last week the 
deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Ian Blair, told the police 
authority that the experiment was "undoubtedly a success - in statistical 
terms".

At the same meeting Sir John Stevens, the Met commissioner, made a point of 
saying that it was his decision to endorse the initiative, which was 
launched a year ago today. In the same week, the deputy assistant 
commissioner Mike Fuller, the Met officer in charge of drugs strategy, 
described the time that had been saved since the project started as "a 
godsend".

Publicity

Brian Paddick was hardly a household name in Lambeth, let alone the rest of 
the country, when, as borough commander, he told his overworked officers to 
caution rather than arrest people caught in possession of cannabis, so they 
could concentrate on tackling hardnut crack and heroin dealers.

Now Lambeth is the battleground for the future of policing cannabis, the 
last stand for campaigners who want to persuade the home secretary, David 
Blunkett, not to reclassify the drug from class B to class C, a move that 
would effectively roll out the Lambeth experiment nationwide; at the moment 
there is no automatic power of arrest for this class of narcotic.

Mr Paddick, now widely known as the most senior openly gay police officer 
in the country, has already become a victim of the row. He has been moved 
to other duties pending an inquiry into allegations about his personal life 
made by a former lover, who was paid ?100,000 for his story by two Sunday 
tabloid newspapers.

But the experiment has endured. And the Met appears to have been emboldened 
into a qualified defence of the pilot in the face of some vociferous local 
opposition because of research that challenges those two main criticisms: 
that more children are smoking cannabis and that the borough has become a 
venue for drugs tourism.

A questionnaire was sent to all the borough's secondary and primary schools 
asking headteachers if they had noticed any evidence to suggest that more 
pupils were using cannabis. Seven of the 10 secondary schools replied, and 
50 of the 66 primary schools.

Feedback

"The feedback is very clear," said Brian Moore, Lambeth's acting borough 
commander. "So far there has been no escalation, which is a reassuring 
response to some of those concerns."

Only one school in the borough was prepared to talk about this yesterday. 
Leslie Morrison, headteacher of the St Martin's in the Fields high school 
for girls, said the pilot had had no effect on her 675 pupils. "Cannabis 
use is not an issue inside the school."

On drugs tourism, analysis of police data of the 1,190 cautions for 
possession since last year suggests that there has been no increase in the 
number of people coming into the borough to buy drugs. The proportions are 
roughly the same as they were last year.

Has the experiment caused a crime wave? Street robbery in Lambeth has been 
halved since October last year. In that month, there were 916. In May, 
there were 438. And between January and May last year, police in the 
borough arrested 249 people for possession of cannabis. In the same period 
this year, 740 warnings were issued. More than 1,200 people have been 
stopped and searched for drugs in the last year.

Senior Met officers insist it is not true to suggest that police have given 
up on policing cannabis; more is being done now than ever before. Yet Mr 
Blair has admitted that the "perception [in the borough] is different", and 
there is an acceptance within Scotland Yard that a failure to properly 
explain what the experiment was aiming to achieve has led to confusion and 
mixed messages over legality.

Critics such as the Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey say the amount of police time the 
pilot has saved - the equivalent of two extra officers on the beat - is 
pitiful compared with the harm that it has caused.

The questionnaire from the schools is not valid evidence, she said 
yesterday. "This is what infuriates me. It's absolute nonsense to rely on 
the questionnaire because it's not the children in school who are at 
greatest risk. It is those who are truanting, the children who are not part 
of the mainstream that teachers are not in touch with."

Ms Hoey is due to meet the home secretary tomorrow and will urge him not to 
reclassify cannabis. She believes the borough "has more drug dealers than 
ever before", and that children are being given the message that "cannabis 
is no worse for you than sweets".

Ms Hoey's position has been supported by other leading members of the 
Lambeth community and local councillors.

Dr Clare Gerada, a member of the Consultancy Liaison Addiction Service, 
told reporters that she knew of children who were smoking cannabis for 
breakfast, and that the drug's popularity seemed to have soared in recent 
months

The Rev Chris Andre-Watson, from Brixton Baptist church, has said he knew 
of children as young as 12 arriving at school stoned.

Paul Amdell, of the Lambeth police consultative group, is a supporter of 
the experiment, but even he concedes that the Met has not got its central 
message across. "We need to develop the pilot to ensure young people know 
cannabis is still illegal."

Crack cocaine

Drug workers insist, though, that cannabis use is the least of the 
borough's drug problems. With crack cocaine and heroin use on the rise - 
not to mention speedballs, a potent mix of crack and heroin - they do not 
want officers wasting time rounding up cannabis users.

Justina Bennis, who works for Mainliners, an HIV and hepatitis C prevention 
charity covering Lambeth, said: "We are pleased to see the police 
concentrating on these and not cannabis. There is no more cannabis use on 
the streets. Police are concentrating resources on class A drugs, which is 
the real problem."

Another drug worker with 10 years experience in the borough also backs the 
experiments. He did not wish to be named.

"It's like the media are saying we never had a crack problem before the 
experiment. We've had crack for years. The experiment has made absolutely 
no difference to the amount of people presenting themselves at the centre 
where I work.

"Our biggest problem is heroin and crack, and over the last few years there 
has been a huge explosion in crack. Cannabis is an irrelevancy when it 
comes to people suffering from drug problems."

The Met says it cannot police cannabis in any practical sense in an area 
such as Lambeth; its opponents say it has abandoned a principle that has 
made a harmful drug appear legal. Mr Blunkett will show which argument he 
is persuaded by within a fortnight.

Mr Paddick believes it is essential that the truth of what is happening in 
Lambeth is made public. "People need to see the whole picture. In recent 
months, all they have heard is one side of the argument."
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