Pubdate: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 Source: Evening Standard (London, UK) Copyright: 2004 Associated Newspapers Ltd. Contact: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/914 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom) UP IN SMOKE WAS THE GOVERNMENT RIGHT TO RELAX THE LAWS ON CANNABIS POSSESSION? New figures on cannabis seizures will come as no surprise to the many people who advised the Government against loosening the law on possession of the drug. Since the Government re-classified cannabis in January of this year, the number of people caught with cannabis by the Metropolitan Police has risen by a third - suggesting a substantial increase in those using it. When the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, first announced his intention to loosen the law, community leaders in areas like Brixton spoke out against reclassification - they knew the effects the change would have. Senior police officers warned that it would send a confusing and mixed message, especially to young people. As an internal Met consultation noted, it also sent a confused message to the officers who have to police the law every day: not surprisingly, it has led to confrontations with youths who insisted that they were not breaking the law by using the drug. The effect has been to make it harder the enforce the law: possession of cannabis is not normally an arrestable offence, yet it is no legal. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that cannabis reclassification was largely political in its intention - a sop to the Labour left at a time when Mr Blunkett, a man to whom personally drugs are anathema, was offending them with security crackdowns and tightening up on asylum seekers. Worse, it is very hard to see how the change has either helped police in London or improved the neighbourhoods where it is now legal for people to wander around puffing clouds of cannabis smoke. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh