BRITISH CANNABIS REFORM DELAYED

Revised to Allow Arrests after Cops Complain

British Home Secretary David Blunkett's vow a year ago to reschedule
cannabis from a class B to a class C drug by this month has fallen by
the wayside in the face of opposition from British police commanders.
Now the promised rescheduling will not take place until at least
year's end, and only after the passage of the Labor government's
Criminal Justice Act, which will include revised penalties for
cannabis possession and sales.

The new penalties for class C drugs -- such as tranquilizers and
anabolic steroids -- will be up to five years for possession and up to
14 years for sale or importation. That is a substantial increase from
current penalties of two years for possession and seven years for sale
or importation. But the five-year figure weighs heavily in the
calculations of police because under British law they are not allowed
to search persons whose suspected crime warrants a sentence of less
than five years.

"The police complained that people would blow smoke in their faces,"
according to a spokesperson for DrugScope (http://www.drugscope.org.uk),
a British drug policy think tank. "They said they must have the
ability to stop and search people in aggravated circumstances, and
they can't do that unless they have that five-year sentence," she told
DRCNet.

Indeed, in what the British newspaper the Independent called "a
rebellion against the government," hard-line members of the
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) split with Blunkett and
the London Metropolitan Police, which supports a no arrest policy,
forcing Blunkett to retreat. Late last month, Blunkett's Home Office
announced that the new penalties would be part of the Criminal Justice
bill and that no rescheduling of cannabis would occur until those
penalties are in place. "This is a long and complex bill, and the
priority has been to ensure full discussion of its many provisions,"
said a Home Office spokesman. "Reclassification will take effect when
the new penalties for cannabis possession are in force, which is
likely to be in January," the Independent reported.

Still, the Home Office vowed that arrests of cannabis users and
possessors would occur only in rare circumstances. "There will be a
presumption against arrest, except where public order is at risk or
where children are vulnerable," the spokesman said. "The police will
also ensure that those who repeatedly flout the law are arrested and
dealt with. Young people found in possession of cannabis will receive
a formal warning at a police station."

But not everyone is sanguine about the Home Office's assurances.
"There is a sort of Catch-22 here, isn't there?" asked DrugScope's
spokesperson. "They will reschedule cannabis but increase the
penalties for the Class C drugs. The police will still have the same
power to arrest people, so the question is will they use it to harass
people? Police say in most cases they will only stop and caution, but
we will have to see."

Even some police commanders have expressed concerns about the retained
sentencing powers. "Chief constables have said that parliament or the
government cannot tell a constable when and why they exercise their
discretion. It's a matter for the officer concerned," one police
source told the Independent, warning that allowing different
approaches in policing cannabis would send "all sorts of mixed
messages" to users.

According to the Independent, Norfolk Chief Constable Andy Hayman,
chair of the ACPO drug committee, was unable to persuade his fellows
to accept guidelines with no arrests until a third offense. Now he
will attempt to get a slightly tougher set of guidelines -- allowing
for arrest in specific circumstances, such as smoking near a school --
pushed through ACPO at a meeting later this month.

Given that Blunkett's current cannabis package will retain arrest
penalties, the ACPO guidelines will be crucial in determining how the
law will be applied on the street. "We are waiting for the guidelines
from ACPO," said the DrugScope spokesperson. "Then we will have an
idea of how police will respond. Since there is no real legislative
difference, the guidelines will be key."

If the Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair seems to be
moving one step sideways on cannabis, at least it has dropped a
Blunkett proposal that would have been a real step back. Blunkett had
proposed extending the Britain's crack house law, which allows the
government to shut down premises involved in the drug trade for up to
three months, to include class B and class C drugs. But when
correspondence between Blunkett and other ministers about the
possibility of padlocking the homes of cannabis users was leaked to
the Times of London two weeks ago, the ensuing uproar killed that
misbegotten proposal dead.