DELAY IN CHANGING LAW LEAVES POLICE FORCES WITH DILEMMA

The year's delay in reclassification of cannabis will leave police forces
with the dilemma of what to do between now and the formal change in the
law. The Metropolitan police has no intention of waiting until next July.
The force used yesterday's announcement to signal its intention to roll out
a "seize and warn" policy across the capital by late autumn.

For the commissioner, Sir John Stevens, the priority is focusing resources
on tackling class A drug dealers and traffickers, so officers will be told
to arrest cannabis users only when David Blunkett's "aggravating factors" -
which relate to "protection of children and public order" - apply.

This means that a modified version of the Lambeth experiment will soon be
the norm across London.

Regional forces with hardline attitudes and less pressing drugs problems,
such as Bedfordshire and Dorset, are likely to continue to arrest people
for simple possession until legislation is passed.

The lack of uniformity will mean that cannabis possession will be treated
differently in different areas, a position that has alarmed some chief
officers. But Kevin Morris, president of the Police Superintendents'
Association, said yesterday that this disparity already existed.

"There is a danger of forces doing their own thing, but frankly that's what
we've got at the moment anyway.

"In a number of places the cannabis laws are not enforced and officers deal
with possession informally or not at all, and in others the letter of the
law is applied.

"At least we've got an overall strategy to work towards; until then the
stop, search and seizure of cannabis would be a commonsense approach to
dealing with cannabis possession."

Forces will look to the Association of Chief Police Officers for national
guidelines on "seize and warn", but these will not be ready for at least
three months.

Because Acpo believed that Mr Blunkett was going to reclassify cannabis
without retaining a power of arrest, it was developing guidelines for when
officers could issue a court summons for possession. The association is now
playing catch-up.

A working group has been established, but its findings will have to be
ratified by the Chief Constables' Council in October before forces can be
issued with the guidelines.

Even then, forces are under no obligation to introduce "seize and warn".

But Acpo supported the reclassification of cannabis, and is hoping many
chief constables will want to introduce the policy as a preparation for the
change in the law.

Acpo admitted earlier this year that the strategy for dealing with heroin
and cocaine users had been ineffective for more than 20 years. Yet every
year officers spend thousands of hours on cannabis offences.

Police dealt with 104,400 people for drugs offences in 2000. More than
70,000 of them involved cannabis.