HOME-GROWN CANNABIS 'IS LESSER CRIME'

People who grow their own cannabis should escape with a police warning if
they only cultivate the drug on a small scale, a think-tank has said.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report said 243 people were jailed in 2000
for growing cannabis, but there were wide variations in the way police
forces treated the crime.

Some charged growers with production - carrying a mandatory seven-year
sentence for a third conviction - while others used the lesser offence of
cultivation.

The report said up to half of all cannabis consumed in Britain might now be
home-grown and punishments for cultivation needed to be altered when the
drug was reclassified as Class C this summer.

Prof Mike Hough, co-author, said: "If small-scale home cultivation
attracted an on-the-spot warning rather than a caution or a court
conviction, it is likely that more users would switch to growing their own
and stop buying from dealers."