PARENTS WHO SMOKE POT IN FRONT OF CHILDREN WILL ESCAPE
WITH A TICKING-OFF

Exposing children to cannabis will be "punished" with nothing more
than a ticking-off under the latest Government edict.

Police have been told smoking even the most dangerous types of the
drug in front of a youngster should not prevent the offender escaping
with only a controversial "formal warning".

The sanction, which follows Labour's decision to downgrade cannabis
from Class B to C, carries no criminal record.

Campaigners said the Government was "sending entirely the wrong
message" to children at risk of using the drug.

Youngsters who see a cannabis user taken away by the police, only to
return minutes later boasting they have escaped with a slap on the
wrist, will believe they have nothing to lose.

It comes as official figures reveal that, since the warnings were
introduced, the number caught with cannabis has rocketed by 47 per
cent.

In 2004/5 it was 88,263 but an alarming 130,406 last year.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "The Government's chaotic and
confused policy of declassification has already led to youngsters
thinking it is OK to take the drug.

"What kind of signal will it send when youngsters see adults getting
away with smoking the drug with a mere warning?

"This typifies the Government's reckless approach and is yet another
policy that will fuel youth crime rather than combat it."

The "formal warning" scheme was introduced in January 2004, when
Labour softened the law governing cannabis.

Users caught with only a small amount of the drug now usually escape
with the simple ticking-off rather than a caution or prosecution.
After huge public alarm, Ministers ruled that, where there were
"aggravating factors", an offender should still face the threat of
arrest and prosecution.

Chief among these was smoking cannabis in front of children or close
to a school or playground.

But guidance sent to police this month, Out of Court Disposals for
Adults, says that - while they should still be - there is no need to
drag offenders into the criminal justice system.

They can escape with the same formal warning, and no criminal record.
The only difference is that it will be given at the police station,
rather than in the street.

It has been issued despite Gordon Brown's decision to review the
reclassification decision, taken under Tony Blair, after fears that
stronger skunk types of the drug put users at increased risk of mental
illness.

The document, seen by the Daily Mail, states: "A cannabis warning
cannot be given on the street but, if appropriate, can be given at the
police station post-arrest when a person is smoking cannabis in the
company or vicinity of young or vulnerable people."

Mary Brett, of campaign group Europe Against Drugs, said: "A formal
warning is nothing more than a slap on the wrist, and that is the last
thing that should happen to somebody smoking cannabis in front of a
child.

"Adults are role models for many young people and if they see that
person getting taken away for smoking cannabis, only to return soon
afterwards bragging about how they got away with it, it sends out
completely the wrong message."

A Home Office spokesman said decisions on how to deal with offenders
was a matter for police.

He added: "Increases in cautions do not mean that drug dealing and
drug possession are on the increase, as police statistics on drugs
reflect operational success in targeting drug supply and possession.

"Rather, there has been an increase in the use of formal warnings for
the possession of cannabis."