cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Arrests Fall Under 'Softly Softly' Law





Cannabis Arrests Fall Under 'Softly Softly' Law
Posted by CN Staff on January 28, 2005 at 17:49:35 PT
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
Source: Independent UK
The number of people arrested for possessing cannabis has fallen by more than one third since the drugs laws were relaxed.But the Home Office said the down-grading of cannabis, from a class-B to class-C drug exactly one year ago had made no difference to levels of use. There were an estimated 43,750 arrests over the past year, compared with 68,625 in the previous 12 months.
Ministers calculated the fall had saved about 200,000 hours of police time, freeing them to tackle the use of class-A drugs such as heroin and crack.Following reclassification, cannabis is now ranked alongside anabolic steroids and some prescription anti-depressants. Although its possession is still a criminal offence, offenders are not usually arrested.According to details of the British Crime Survey which were published by the Home Office yesterday, 10.8 per cent of adults report taking cannabis over the past year, compared with 10.9 per cent in the previous 12 months.It also discovered that the proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds using the drug had fallen from 28.2 per cent to 24.8 per cent over the past five years.Caroline Flint, a Home Office Minister, said: "The picture is encouraging, with significant savings in police time which can now be used to drive more serious drugs off our streets and make our communities safer."Because each arrest takes an average of eight hours to process, the 24,875 fewer arrests saved 199,000 hours of police time. She added: "I'm pleased figures show that some predictions that cannabis use by young people would increase were wholly unfounded."Martin Barnes, the chief executive of the charity DrugScope, said: "We supported, and continue to support, the reclassification of cannabis."It is encouraging that cannabis use among young people has been declining, although it is too soon to draw conclusions from the latest figures on the impact of reclassification."The reclassification of cannabis was in recognition that all drugs are not the same."But the Tories, who have pledged to reverse the reclassification, accused the Government of releasing misleading statistics. They pointed to a separate survey that suggested overall drug use by teenagers has doubled since 1997.David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "Downgrading cannabis was a mistake, which has sent mixed messages to the young and the vulnerable about the dangers of drugs. Mr Blair's government is deceiving itself by using misleading figures to measure cannabis use." Source: Independent (UK)Author: Nigel Morris, Home Affairs CorrespondentPublished: January 29, 2005Copyright: 2005 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.Contact: letters independent.co.ukWebsite: http://www.independent.co.uk/ Related Articles & Web Site:Advisory Council On The Misuse of Drugshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/reschedule.pdf Cannabis Arrests Fall By a Third http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20173.shtmlBig Shake-Up of Britains Drug Laws in 30 Yearshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18261.shtmlThe Case for Small Home Growers http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18249.shtml
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Comment #22 posted by afterburner on January 29, 2005 at 12:01:37 PT
Babble Babble Psycho-Babble
RE Comment #18: The latest NORML newletter has a survey of available studies indicating that cannabis is NOT a mental health problem for most people: Moderate Use Of Cannabis "Safe," Study Says. 
January 27, 2005 - Oxford, United Kingdom, cited in NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- January 27, 2005
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/20/thread20168.shtml"A review of the literature suggests that the majority of cannabis users, who use the drug occasionally rather than on a daily basis, will not suffer any lasting physical or mental harm," writes the study's author, Dr. Leslie Iversen of the University of Oxford. "Overall, by comparison with other drugs used mainly for 'recreational' purposes, cannabis could be rated to be a relatively safe drug."The Brits just love that Psycho-Babble Rock. They don't call it Reefer "Madness" for nothing. But who are the *mad* one's, the gentle cannabis consumers or the fanatical prohibitionists?!
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on January 29, 2005 at 11:18:06 PT
potpal
I know. I just looked and we have at least 4 articles with that word in the title. 
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Comment #20 posted by potpal on January 29, 2005 at 11:15:08 PT
psychosis - scary word
Anti's new/latest favorite theme to harp on, apparent from the side bar, in the bbc article, references over last few weeks...
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on January 29, 2005 at 10:56:17 PT
potpal
Thank you for the link. When we they stop all this propaganda? 
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Comment #18 posted by potpal on January 29, 2005 at 10:53:25 PT
From the dark side...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4218851.stm Maybe we can reevaluate alcohol in relation to psychosis...yeah right.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on January 29, 2005 at 07:46:16 PT
Globe and Mail Article
I don't have to snip the Globe and Mail so here is an article about what we're talking about.RCMP Reach Settlement With Off-Duty Policeman: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20176.shtml
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Comment #16 posted by kaptinemo on January 29, 2005 at 07:29:18 PT:
And I am not speaking metaphorically
An Interview with Alfred McCoy
by David Barsamian
Conducted at University of Wisconsin-Madison, February 17,1990 
http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/DARKALLIANCE/ciah1.htmlThis is the story that cost Gary Webb his future...and I suspect, in more ways than one:
DARK ALLIANCE: http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/DARKALLIANCE/There's so much dirt in the prohibition business that you could start your own worm farms...
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Comment #15 posted by kaptinemo on January 29, 2005 at 07:01:41 PT:
BTW
As of today, 32 British Pounds is now worth 60.42560 US DollarsFX Currency exchange convereter: http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic60 dollars AN OUNCE for premium hash while it's *illegal*; how much for legal hash? It's stunning when you realize just how massively inflated cannabis prices are thanks to prohibition...which hasn't stopped anyone who could from paying those outrageous prices. Prohibition has always been a massive scam perpetrated by government to the benefit of it and it's supposed enemy - but de facto ally - the criminal. 
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Comment #14 posted by goneposthole on January 29, 2005 at 06:52:48 PT
jiminy crickets
'If it did it would stop being profitable for dealers.'The police in Scotland are openly endorsing the support of cannabis dealers?Beam me up, Scotty.
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Comment #13 posted by kaptinemo on January 29, 2005 at 06:25:33 PT:
JR Bob Dobs, a partial answer for you
Actually, we had an article about this on CNEWS: Spliff Nation
http://cannabisnews.com/news/18/thread18777.shtmlFrom the article:*The price of cannabis has more than halved in Scotland because thousands of users are growing their own. Drug squads yesterday warned that the price of hash has gone through the floor, with an ounce selling for £32 compared to £100 two years ago. Last night, detective sergeant Kenny Simpson of Strathclyde Police said: 'Since reclassification there have been more people growing their own grass because they incorrectly think it's legal. 'The price of cannabis resin cannot drop any more. 'If it did it would stop being profitable for dealers.'*Look at the last sentence. Right there, an admission of cannabis's true market price would be vastly lower than the prohibition maintained 'price supports'. This copper is crying the blues because it has halved while still being illegal; what do you think would happen if it were truly, completely legal? I daresay the price would be on par with cigarettes.I hope many who read here will realize, by looking at that article, why the police move so quickly to shut down any attempt to open a shop and sell cannabis, as they did with the Da Kine group in Vancouver. If they didn't intervene, THE PRICE OF CANNABIS WOULD DROP OUT OF SIGHT..The awesomely simple truth is, when the police shut down open dispensaries, they are DIRECTLY supporting the very criminal element they claim they are trying to destroy. As illustrated by the Da Kine experience and every other place this has happened, THE STREET PRICE DROPS when the shops open. The dealers literally move away from the area of openly sold cannabis because the local price supports have broken down and they can't get the prices they want for their wares.As soon as the police have moved in and established 'normalcy' by shutting down the open shops, the price goes back up, and the dealers return to the area they had left...as does all the violence attendent with the trade when it's run by crooks instead of shopkeepers.This sick symbiosis has been nothing but conjecture before; now we have the proof. The laws create the problem. Change the law: eliminate the problem. You don't need Einstein or Stephen Hawking to figure this one out.But you have to be as abjectly assinine as an anti to think their process is working.
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Comment #12 posted by The GCW on January 29, 2005 at 05:56:12 PT
goneposthole #10, wow.
CANADIANS: This is a lighthouse. Your call.
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Comment #11 posted by The GCW on January 29, 2005 at 05:49:48 PT
FoM,
I read about that also; Texas troopers were going to Cannada to show them how to realy persecute cannabists...I forgot where... thought it was perhaps a link from someone here at C-news in the last day or so...Canada had better watch their disobedient neighbors to thier south. America has shown its willingness to send military troops to places it shouldn't.The U.S. Federal Government is a bureaucRAT and will try to destroy Your mouse trap.
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Comment #10 posted by goneposthole on January 29, 2005 at 04:58:55 PT
how 'anschluss' will happen
Just Kidding:Divert Your Course!This is the actual radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October
1995. Radio conversation released by the chief of naval operations, 10-10-95.CANADIANS: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.AMERICANS: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision.CANADIANS: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.AMERICANS: This is the captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.CANADIANS: No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.AMERICANS: This is the Aircraft Carrier US LINCOLN, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic Fleet. We are accompanied with three Destroyers, three Cruisers and numerous support vessels. I DEMAND that you change your course 15 degrees north. I say again, that's one-five degrees north, or counter-measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.CANADIANS: This is a lighthouse. Your call.
your call
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Comment #9 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on January 29, 2005 at 04:42:52 PT
Lies and the lying liars
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000778976I posted a link to this article yesterday, but the last part of the last paragraph has stuck with me:-According to a release, publicity or propaganda is defined in the bill as: [list snipped] finally, messages that are "so misleading or inaccurate that they constitute propaganda."If this law passes, imagine what it could do to the ONDCP... being forced to tell the truth!
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Comment #8 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on January 29, 2005 at 01:56:56 PT
Have prices fallen?
That's an interesting question. Have UK cannabis prices declined in this past year?
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on January 28, 2005 at 21:23:40 PT
goneposthole 
I hope they will stand and not just take it. I don't know anything about Vancouver and how people feel but I do know the power and will of our current government. Look at Iraq and it says it all to me.
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Comment #6 posted by goneposthole on January 28, 2005 at 20:49:39 PT
"Our British Columbia Not For Sale"
The words on a homemade sign south of Fort Nelson in northern British Columbia. It is difficult to fathom the vastness of that Canadian province. It is unbelievably huge, some 948,000 square kilometers (366,000 square miles). It will be next to impossible to police without state of the art technology. I doubt very much that it can be done without an actual military presence of some kind. All of the efforts would have to be concentrated in the Vansterdam environs. It will be easy for BC growers to sabotage any efforts by the police by instigating a constant stream of false reporting of grow-ops. The authorities would be tearing their hair out. Vancouver would have to be literally invaded by American military forces.
It would be that bizarre. The only solution is to legalize cannabis. Got to pot-tv.net and watch Marijuana Man's October Grow Show. He explains his sentiments about the Vancouver police in no uncertain terms.I hope this is the right link, if not, it is easy to find. It's a dandy.http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-3089.html
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on January 28, 2005 at 19:46:10 PT
kaptinemo
I believe you. I have felt they will be the 51st state soon. It's so scary for me to think of our Canadian friends having to be so uptight like we are down here. We need their resources. We always get what we want. That's the american way. That's not me or us but just how it is.
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Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on January 28, 2005 at 19:41:58 PT:
FoM, a partial answer to your question
The Canuck civil and military organizations are being prepared for anschluss...takeover by the US in case of 'national emergency'. An AMERICAN one.No, I am not joking. I am dead serious. I mean every word I am saying.A pattern has been developing in Canada, and some of our Canadian brethren have made mention of it from time to time. But the Canadian police, after years of seeming to take a different tack (reflecting their countrymen's relaxed, sensible attitudes on cannabis) have recently started to take a much more aggressive and, dare I say it, AMERICAN posture on the matter. The impetus for this can come from only one place, and it's not above the 49th Parallel.If you read their pronouncements about cannabis, and don't look at anything that might indicate the speaker's address, you'd swear you were hearing a DEA agent mouthing off. Same BS about the same BS. This is not accidental.Then, last year, along the islands that dot the BC coast, the police began flying choppers and landing on private land in search of cannabis grow ops. Their police wore camouflage uniforms, masks and carried automatic weapons...just like American cops do. And they behaved just as belligerantly. Canadian police are adopting American tactics, American equipment...and American arrogance towards their paymasters, the civilian population who pays their salaries. Canadian police are practically green with envy over Yankee forfeiture laws, and want them themselves so they can get as fat and happy on stolen loot as their American counterparts. And now we have American cops patrolling Canuck roads...and hassling Canuck civs...just like back home. And Canuck cops are picking up bad habits from their 'Mur-kin counterparts to practice on their own people.I said it back when the first reports of DEA agents having a permanent duty station in Vancouver was made public that this was the veritable 'camel's nose' being inserted into the tent of Canadian sovereignty, and that the shaggy, smelly, rude beast would soon have it's head and neck in shortly after. I truly, sincerely hope I am wrong. But I am afraid that something very much along the lines of an anschluss, a merging of the two nations, is taking place. To the detriment of Canadians.If you want a broader, geopolitical view, I suggest you go here:
Is the Annexation of Canada part of Bush's Military Agenda?
by Michel Chossudovsky http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO411C.html
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on January 28, 2005 at 18:58:42 PT:
Seems like the Tories are looking for a cause
The REAL determinant of success in this matter should be: Did murders attributable to the drug trade drop during the year? And among those murders, how many were performed by cannabis vendors?I strongly suspect that the murders occured almost exclusively among purveyors of the hard junk, as the cannabis consumers saw the price of UK cannabis products drop thanks to lessened sanctions against it making it less profitable.The Tories appear to be reaching for anything, anything at all, to get back into power, but may find their stance will alienate the very people they need help from. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 28, 2005 at 18:56:40 PT
A Question
It says in this article that a Texas Cop was working in Canada to train them. What's that all about?http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/01/28/texas-bc050128.html
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 28, 2005 at 17:54:34 PT
Related Article from The BBC
Cannabis Arrests Fall by a Third 
 January 29, 2005Arrests for possession of cannabis fell by a third in the first year since it was downgraded to a Class C drug, official Home Office figures show. An estimated 199,000 police hours were saved, according to data from 26 of the 42 English and Welsh police forces. Cannabis was reclassified so that officers could target hard drugs. Minister Caroline Flint said new crime survey figures also showed that fears for a rise in cannabis use among young people were "wholly unfounded." Complete Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4216283.stm
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