On a nightly basis we read in the Oldham Chronicle the effects of
crime on our town -muggings, alcohol fueled mayhem in the town centre,
vicious racist attacks using knives and machetes, rape and serious
sexual assaults.

We now have a least three so called no go areas, Werneth, Westwood and
Glodwick, where many people are afraid to walk the streets at night.

We hear how stretched our police are in dealing with the rising tide
of violence and destruction around us. We read letters from frustrated
crime victims apparantly unable to get an adequate response when
calling their local police stations.

Of course these problems are not parculiar to Oldham, but there is
one area of criminal activity where the police, both nationally and
locally are doing spectacularly well. In the last ten years, arrests
and prosecutions for simple possession of cannabis have quadrupled and
now number almost 100,000 annually. This despite the fact that the
number of police officers patrolling our streets is in decline.

Ann Widdecombe was rightly lambasted for her 'Zero Tolerance' to
cannabis speech, but in reality successive governments have been
steering us towards such a policy for some time. The police resources
wasted on chasing cannabis smokers would be much better spent in the
pursuit of a 'Zero Tolerance' policy against the real criminals that
are causing so much damage to society.

JUST SAY NO TO 'ZERO TOLERANCE'