THE LAW TURNS BLIND EYE TO CANNABIS

POSSESSION of cannabis is well on the way to becoming effectively
decriminalised in Scotland, according to official figures obtained by The
Herald.

Previously unpublished Home Office statistics show the number of cannabis
smokers warned rather than taken to court has leapt 15-fold in less than 10
years. Where previously only 7% of offenders avoided prosecution, now 35%
escape with a warning.

In 1986, only 108 of the 1625 offenders caught possessing cannabis received
some sort of let-off, most usually a fiscal warning. By 1995, however, 1628
of the 4697 offenders detected by police were not prosecuted.

On current trends, Scotland will soon go the same way as England, where the
majority of those caught with cannabis do not have to go to court.
Offenders north of the Border already have a one-in-three chance of getting
away with no real punishment.

The figures were obtained by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace,
whose party wants a Royal Commission to examine whether cannabis should
remain illegal.

Scotland's Home Affairs Minister, Mr Henry McLeish, told Mr Wallace in a
covering letter that some of those not taken to court avoided prosecution
because their offences were regarded as "trivial".

Mr Wallace, the Orkney and Shetland MP, said last night the Home Office
data showed informal decriminalisation of cannabis was already occurring in
Scotland because of the rapidly-rising number of people who were not taken
to court.

"These figures suggest there's been a significant change in approach by the
prosecution authorities, and arguably they illustrate that a measure of
decriminalisation is already going on," Mr Wallace said.

The Liberal Democrat leader urged Scotland's top law officer - the Lord
Advocate, Lord Hardie - to explain what was going on.

"We need a thorough-going inquiry into how the possession and use of
cannabis is dealt with by the authorities in Scotland.

"It's better we debate this subject openly and honestly, with all the
arguments for and against decriminalisation, including the medical
arguments, rather than have some policy being implemented by stealth by the
Crown Office."

Mr Wallace said that while he personally remained unpersuaded of the case
for legalising cannabis, "there's a proper debate to be had. Cannabis
shouldn't become a political no-go area. There are serious issues to be
thrashed out here."

Mr McLeish said the growing number of non-prosecutions included warnings by
the procurator-fiscal or the police, cases diverted from the court system,
reports marked "no proceedings" or "no further proceedings", and juveniles
reported to the Children's Panel.

In another significant move, The Herald has learned that many police
officers across Scotland are turning a blind eye when they come across
people who have a small amount of cannabis for personal consumption.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the country's leading police
officers revealed that, while forces report almost 5000 people a year for
possession of cannabis to the procurator-fiscal, at least the same number
again suffer no criminal sanction.

"The way we operate nowadays, it's unusual and rare to report someone to
the fiscal for a small amount of cannabis for personal use.

"There's an acceptance that that type of thing just doesn't go to the
fiscal these days. It just doesn't happen. If it's supplying cannabis,
that's another matter," he said.

When the police catch a young person with cannabis, they will usually speak
to the offender's parents rather than instigate any legal proceedings,
according to the officer, who has 25 years' experience.

Last night, however, representatives of Scotland's 14,000 police officers
claimed the procurator-fiscal service's workload and lack of resources were
mainly to blame.

Chief Superintendent Jack Urquhart, president of the Association of
Scottish Police Superintendents, said: "Fiscals are seeing these cases as
not a priority because they are so overloaded and can't prosecute every
case the police give them. They see this as a lower priority than other
crimes."

Mr Doug Keil, general secretary of the rank-and-file Scottish Police
Federation, denied there was "back-door decriminalisation" but said many
other offences - minor assaults, breaches of the peace, low-value thefts,
and motoring offences - were also no longer being prosecuted.

America's baby-boomer parents are clueless when it comes to their own
children and drug use, according to a report released yesterday. The
Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, an ongoing study of more than 9700
children, teen-agers, and parents, found a "dramatic gap" between what
parents thought their children were doing and what was actually going on.

Only 21% of parents thought their teenage children might have used
marijuana but 44% of the teens surveyed said they had tried it. That
compares to 60% of the parents who said they had tried drugs at some point.