December 29, 2001

Guardian

by Nick Hopkins

Scotland Yard has extended a controversial pilot scheme that relaxes the force's attitude towards cannabis possession following an interim study that indicates it has been a complete success, the Guardian can reveal.

The six-month initiative in Lambeth, south London, was due to end on December 31, but senior officers have decided to leave it in place pending a comprehensive review by the Police Foundation.

Although the Met is cautious about pre-empting the foundation's findings, which are due to be published in February, the force has decided to persevere with the scheme - a sure sign that the commissioner, Sir John Stevens, is keen for it to roll out across the capital.  He regards the system whereby people caught with cannabis are given on-the-spot warnings rather than being cautioned, arrested and possibly charged as "sensible and progressive".

The decision will also encourage the home secretary, David Blunkett, to press ahead with his plan to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug so that the police lose the power to arrest people for simple possession.

The advisory council on the misuse of drugs is to report in the new year on the health implications of relaxing the cannabis law and the change could come into force across the country as early as March.

The Met believes it can counter criticism that it is "going soft" on cannabis by pointing to statistics that show officers in Lambeth have continued to stop people suspected of drugs possession.

The latest figures show that they issued 381 warnings to people caught with cannabis between July 2 and November 30.  Names and addresses were taken and cannabis confiscated.  The average amount seized was 5g, with an approximate street value of £15.

Last year officers arrested 278 people for cannabis possession in the same period.  Under the old approach, this would have involved two officers spending up to five hours filling out forms at the police station.

There is some mandatory paperwork to complete for a warning, but it takes one officer less than two hours.  The fact that magistrates routinely fine cannabis users as little as £10 was another important incentive for change.

"Without the full evaluation, it would be wrong to read too much into the figures, but they do show that officers in Lambeth are using the scheme.  The number of warnings is higher than the number of arrests which shows that our officers are not ignoring cannabis possession," said a Met spokesman.

"There is a lot less paperwork involved when you issue a warning, which gives our officers more flexibility.  The amount of cannabis being seized indicates domestic use, rather than dealing.  Our officers still have the power to arrest but they are only using this when they suspect the person is lying about their details, or where they find much larger amounts of the drug."

The Met supported the reclassification of cannabis from class B to class C, and would support the reclassification of ecstasy from class A to class B if the medical and scientific evidence supported such a move.