YARD RELAXES APPROACH TO CANNABIS OFFENCES

Scotland Yard has officially endorsed a controversial plan that will
relax the force's attitude towards cannabis possession, the Guardian
can reveal.

Senior officers, including the commissioner Sir John Stevens, believe
that an initiative in south London whereby people caught with cannabis
will be given on-the-spot warnings rather than being cautioned,
arrested and possibly charged is "sensible and progressive".

The scheme in Lambeth, which is due to start soon, has been given
formal "pilot" status with officers hoping it will roll out across the
capital after three to six months if, as expected, it proves a success.

The Met is bracing itself for criticism that it is "going soft" on
cannabis, but the force wants to take a lead because, officers argue,
in the grand scheme of crime, cannabis possession is a low priority.

"What is the point of spending hours in the police station charging
someone for possessing cannabis, with all the paperwork that involves,
when magistrates courts routinely only fine users ?10 to ?20?" said a
Scotland Yard source.

"Our research shows the legal process costs the taxpayer up to
?10,000."

Last night, the plan was welcomed by Drugscope, Britain's leading centre
of expertise on drugs, which stressed it was in line with the National
Drugs Strategy: its priority is the most dangerous drugs.

"It's clearly a pragmatic response," said the chief executive, Roger
Howard. "However, there is still a fundamental dilemma. According to
the statute book, cannabis users elsewhere in the UK could still be
imprisoned for similar minor offences."

The idea of formally adopt ing a relaxed attitude to cannabis was
first floated by commander Brian Paddick, who is in charge of policing
in Lambeth, an area that includes high crime and drug dealing areas
such as Brixton.

The idea is to free uniformed officers to tackle more serious crimes.
Anyone caught with cannabis will be given a warning - a lesser penalty
than a caution.

A warning is recorded only by local police and does not have to be
declared by someone applying for a job. Drugs found will be
confiscated.

Mr Paddick was the first senior officer in Britain to offi cially
sanction such a tactic. Scotland Yard was initially sceptical, saying
it was "a local initiative" that had no bearing on force-wide strategy.

But since then Mr Paddick's plans have been reviewed by Sir John, his
deputy Ian Blair, and the assistant commissioner, Mike Todd. They
agreed that it was sensible, especially as many junior officers
already treat cannabis possession "with a slap on the wrist".

Issuing warnings is allowed under discretionary powers given by the
Home Officethough no force has dared to make this policy.

Justifying his proposal, Mr Paddick said his officers needed more time
to tackle "the cancer" of crime relating to crack cocaine.

"I've never met anyone who had to commit crime to fund a cannabis
habit, but crack cocaine users commit robbery, burglary and car crime."

It takes two officers up to five hours to process a cannabis
possession arrest, he said. Under the new system, it could be 10 minutes.

Gerald Howarth MP, a member of the home affairs select committee in
the last parliament, attacked the Met's decision: "This is sending all
the wrong signals on law enforce ment in the metropolis... Drug
offences and abuse lead to theft, burglary and muggings."

The last available figures, for 1999, show London police and customs
made 19,255 separate seizures of cannabis - confiscating 492 kilos of
the drug in its herbal form, 1,597 kilos of resin, plus 4,300 plants.

A total of 19,196 people were either found guilty of offences
involving cannabis, given fines or cautioned - in contrast to just 663
for offences involving crack and 1,497 involving heroin.