POLICE CHIEF ACKNOWLEDGES 'MUDDLE' OVER DRUG LAW

Britain's most high-ranking police chief admitted yesterday that there was
widespread confusion and "muddle" surrounding the changes to the law on
cannabis due to take place at the end of the month.

Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said some
people mistakenly believed that the drug was being legalised.

He said there was a "massive amount of muddle" over the changes, which will
see cannabis downgraded from a class B to a class C drug on 29 January.

He also conceded that the decision to limit an experimental "softly, softly"
policing approach to cannabis possession to Brixton, in the south London
borough of Lambeth, had been a mistake.

The Home Office issued a statement yesterday saying that it was spending UKP
1m in the next few weeks on an advertising campaign to inform the police,
young people, and cannabis users what the changes to the law will mean.

The reclassification has been controversial, with some people arguing that
it sends the wrong message to teenagers and is confusing, while drug reform
groups believe that it does not go far enough.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, argues that it will allow the police to
concentrate on more harmful drugs, such as crack cocaine and heroin.

Under the changes, possessing the drug will cease to be an arrestable
offence in most situations, but officers will retain the power to arrest in
aggravated circumstances such as smoking the drug outside schools or on the
street. In most cases, the drug will be confiscated and users will be given
a warning. The maximum penalty for the possession of cannabis will be
reduced from five years' to two years' imprisonment. Children under 18
caught with the drug will usually have two warnings before they are charged.

But Sir John told LBC Radio: "There is a massive amount of muddle about
where we are with cannabis - cannabis, the possession of cannabis, the use
of cannabis, is still against the law. You are committing an offence if you
have it in your possession and if you use it. I think that needs to be made
absolutely clear.

"We have to get that out in a very simplified form to schools and, likewise,
what our policy is in terms of when people have got it for their own
purposes - small amounts."

Asked whether it was the job of the police or the Government to enforce the
message that cannabis was still illegal, Sir John replied: "Both - but it's
an issue that has been raised by a lot of officers and they feel that we
need to get that out as soon as possible."

Sir John said that concern and confusion, which has been expressed by
headteachers, lawyers and even police officers, had been prompted initially
by the 2002 Brixton experiment, which was run by the then divisional
commander, Brian Paddick. Under that scheme, officers were instructed to
give cautions to those found in possession of small amounts of the drug
rather than arresting them.

Sir John said: "Most of this started with this pilot scheme in Brixton and I
think that we, I, made a mistake in just making that pilot down in Lambeth,
in Brixton. I think because of the nature of Brixton and the fact that a
large amount of attention was focused on Brixton, it made it like a goldfish
bowl.

"We should have perhaps done a pilot in Brixton but possibly in another two
or three boroughs as well."