POLICE TO TAKE FLEXIBLE STANCE WITH CANNABIS USERS

Police are being given the go-ahead to adopt a more flexible approach
towards cannabis use in order to free additional resources to combat hard
drugs.

Ministers have not opposed a pilot scheme being developed in south London
where police are cautioning people caught in possession of cannabis, rather
than arresting them.

According to area commander Brian Paddick, one of the Metropolitan Police's
modernisers, the policy is aimed at saving time and using more officers on
the streets to deal with the threat of more addictive and crime-related
drugs such as crack.

Despite meeting resistance from some Conservative party politicians,
Whitehall insiders predict the practice will spread among the police, as
the government's drugs policy becomes more focused and area commanders seek
to make effective use of their budgets in bringing crime rates down.

The government is raising the profile of its anti-drugs strategy, drawing
sports stars such as Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United
football club, into the next phase of its Positive Futures Campaign, aimed
at steering young people away from drug dealers.

Gordon Brown, the chancellor, Jack Straw, the home secretary, and cabinet
minister Ian McCartney on Monday detailed a UKP 300m package which will
give police commanders and community leaders flexibility over the
application of funds.

More than 370 police and local authority-led crime and disorder reduction
partnerships in England and Wales will get UKP 220m from funding announced
in last month's Budget to deliver local strategies, capable of generating
the support and involvement of the community.