SHOP OPENLY SELLS CANNABIS FOR MEDICINAL USE

Supplier Claims Police Turn Blind Eye To Drug Dealing

Special Report: Drugs In Britain

The owner of a health food shop is openly selling cannabis for medicinal
use in the heart of London's King's Cross with the apparent approval of
local police, the Guardian can reveal.

Tony Taylor, of Tony's Hemp Corner, has around 250 customers, including
doctors and lawyers. He claims local police, who arrested him on charges of
growing and supplying the plant three years ago, turn a blind eye to his
practice as they concentrate on tackling the area's prostitutes and crack
cocaine dealers.

The news of Mr Taylor's unorthodox business - and the apparent response of
Islington police - comes the day after the Guardian revealed that Scotland
Yard has officially endorsed a controversial plan not to caution or arrest
people caught carrying or using the Class B drug but to give them
on-the-spot warnings instead.

Senior officers, including the Metropolitan commissioner, Sir John Stevens,
believe the scheme, to be piloted in Lambeth, south London, from next
month, is "sensible and progressive", a view endorsed by the drug policy
reform group Transform, who described it as "the beginning of the end for
current drugs laws".

But the Met is bracing itself for accusations that it is "going soft".

Mr Taylor, who was given an absolute discharge after his arrest three years
ago, yesterday described the attitude of police in London's red-light
district to his business as "really cool".

"The council and the police know exactly what's going on and the police
think what I'm doing is really good," he said from his office, where he
keeps accounts and copies of the GP letters he requires.

"They come around sometimes and say, 'How are you doing, are there any
problems?' We've obviously been granted grace because there are so many
other problems in King's Cross."

However, Islington police last night denied they knew about Mr Taylor's
medicinal cannabis dealing. "We weren't aware that he was prescribing drugs
for patients with GPs' letters," said Detective Chief Inspector Robin
Hopes. "We'd like to get around a table with him and work out if what he's
doing is legal or illegal."

Mr Taylor, who offers cannabis at less than the street price, refuses to
supply it for recreational use and clients have to fill in a form, undergo
a 20-minute interview and provide him with a GP's letter.