POLICE CALL FOR DOPE 'TICKETS'

CURRENT government rules on cannabis are inadequate to deal with
Camden Town's drugs blight, according to the borough's senior
policeman who is calling for new powers.

Police should have the power to issue "tickets" and UKP80 fines to
anyone caught with cannabis if the High Street's reputation for
dope-pushing is to be stubbed out, Chief Superintendent Mark Heath
told the New Journal. Under his proposals, existing Home Office
guidelines, which advise police to issue warnings rather than
prosecute, would be replaced with a system of on-the-spot fines that
carried a criminal record.

This will fuel the debate over the current government's robustness in
dealing with the class C drug.

He said: "We do some formal warnings but it doesn't really cut the ice
much if you say 'excuse me sir, you're not allowed to have a bit of
cannabis in Camden Town, dreadfully sorry'. If it had a fixed penalty
notice attached to it for UKP80 it would be quite useful."

The Camden Town experience of street pushers operating among stalls
and shops selling cannabis paraphernalia has no close parallel in
London and calls for special powers, he added, with only Brixton drug
market coming close.

Fixed Penalty Notices would be used against first-time offenders. The
proposals have formed part of the action-plan for tackling anti-social
behaviour in Camden put forward by Lib Dem crime tsar Councillor Ben
Rawlings, despite his party's support for the Home Office decision not
to upgrade the classification of cannabis.

The Home Office said last week that there were no plans to change
policy on cannabis possession.