POLICE: PARENTS ARE IGNORANT ABOUT CANNABIS

Parents who allow or even encourage their children to smoke cannabis
are guilty of ignorance and complacency, senior police officers have
said.

The Association of Chief Police Officers said many parents did not
understand the serious health risks of newer, more potent strains of
the drug.

The body was speaking out after a mother was sentenced this week for
giving her children cannabis to stop them buying the drug from street
dealers.

Assistant Chief Constable Simon Byrne said parents needed to take a
zero tolerance approach.

"You are not being a good parent by introducing drugs in any sort of
way to children's experience to help them grow up. It's harmful,
there's no place for it so stamp it out," he said.

"There is a group of parents that are complacent and turn a blind eye
to drug use in the sense of 'out of sight, out of mind' and in
turning that blind eye, they are creating a deeper mess because we
are worried about the rise in potency of the cannabis that is on the
streets."

Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said
parents who may have smoked cannabis recreationally in their
university days are misguided about the health dangers. "We need to
get rid of the idea that cannabis is really OK," he said.

Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry, added: "Some
liberal parents have been quite pleased when their 15-year-olds tells
them they are taking cannabis. They say 'oh, thank goodness they are
not drinking'. Some kids are taking the equivalent in cannabis terms
of what would be a bottle of vodka a day."