TOP POLICEMAN WANT CANNABIS MADE CLASS B TO END CONFUSION AMONG FORCES

The Government should reverse its decision to downgrade cannabis
possession to end the widespread confusion over how to enforce the
law, senior police officers said yesterday.

"We think it was a mistake to downgrade it to class C," said Chief
Superintendent Ian Johnston, president of the Police Superintendents
Association of England and Wales. "It was reclassified almost by
stealth under [the then Home Secretary] David Blunkett. We recognise
the dangers of the drug and think it's more appropriate to see it
classified as class B. Quite frankly, cannabis has ruined people's
lives and it needs to find its way up the priority list of policing.
The previous softer messages were a mistake."

An IoS investigation has discovered that the penalties for cannabis
possession vary widely across Britain. Some forces encourage the use
of warnings, while others take a zero-tolerance approach and will
arrest people found with the drug.

Chief Superintendent Johnston said: "There are regional differences
in policing cannabis. The messages that police forces have been
receiving about cannabis have been confusing for some time and we
need clarity,"

In Merseyside, where Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe broke ranks
earlier this year to call for cannabis to be reclassified, people
found in possession of small amounts of the drug are arrested or
formally cautioned.

Cleveland Police in North-east England said they did not prosecute
for small amounts of cannabis.

Northern Constabulary, which covers the North of Scotland, takes a
tough line, saying that they always prosecute for possession.

The superintendents' call came as police in Battersea, south London,
announced a three-month crackdown on cannabis in an area just a few
miles from Lambeth - a borough known for its "softly softly" approach
to the drug.

Guidelines issued earlier this year by the Association of Chief
Police Officers recommend the use of warnings rather than arrests.

Home Office figures show that informal cautions, which do not carry a
criminal record, rocketed by 28 per cent to more than 81,000 last
year. Cannabis possession offences in 2006 reached 130,406 - the
highest on record.