Cannabis being slowly decriminalised, allegedly
Cannabis prosecutions have fallen by a third in the past decade leading to claims of it being decriminalised by the back door.
The number of offences for possession of cannabis fell from 160,733 in 2010-11 to 110,085 in 2019-20, according to police data analysed by House of Commons researchers.
Less than a quarter of those offences led to a charge, with nearly a third (32 per cent) resulting in a community resolution, where the individual does not receive a criminal record.
The news comes as two policing chiefs joined the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, in calling for a review into whether cannabis should be legalised.
The proposal, slapped down by Boris Johnson, led to Downing Stree saying there was, "absolutely no intention" of changing the law. Mr Khan announced plans for an independent London drugs commission to examine the potential health, economic and criminal justice benefits of decriminalising the class B drug.
Police chiefs say it could release resources to target the organised criminals behind the drug chains.
A poll of 2,000 adults by Electoral Calculus showed that 47 per cent support legalising the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis and 30 per cent opposed the motion. Twenty three percent did not express an opinion.
The police and crime commissioner for North Wales, Arfon Jones, said forces were increasingly using "diversion" schemes, meaning an offender is not prosecuted if they admit their guilt and agree to undergo alternative treatment, education or training. The intention being to avoid criminalising young people.
Mr Jones told a national broadsheet, "We can do that within the law as it stands. We have the discretion to deal with offenders. If we want to divert them, we can do that. We are beyond decriminalisation. We are already doing that."
He further commented that there needed to be a review of the legalisation of cannabis to see how "regulation of the drugs market is done" in other countries such as Canada, the US, Portugal and Uruguay.
Gloucestershire's police and crime commissioner and a former police superintendent, Martin Surl, said cannabis possession needed to be treated as a "health issue rather than a criminal issue".
He said society should recognise that criminalisation had not stopped people from using the drug. "It needs to be regulated in the same way as vodka or anything like that, and probably quite strictly. We need to take the criminal element out of it so we can treat and help people," he said.
Lord Blunkett, when home secretary, downgraded cannabis from class B to C before being forced to upgrade it as more powerful strains emerged.
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