Police tsar: Off-licences should sell cannabis same way as booze
NORTH Wales’ policing boss has called for shops like off-licences to be able to sell drugs.
Arfon Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for the region, said he didn’t see any reason why drugs such as cannabis should not be sold in the same way alcohol is sold, over-the-counter in licensed shops.
But he said he believed hard drugs like heroin and cocaine should only be available on prescription from pharmacies.
Mr Jones told the Daily Post: “I want to see drugs controlled and sold by responsible retailers similar to off-licences that sell alcohol.
“I don’t see a difference between the use of alcohol and the use of cannabis.
“If we went back to day one, and we were legislating this again I’m sure people would realise that alcohol causes a lot more harm than cannabis does and I think the categorisation would reflect that. But we are where we are, alcohol is legal and cannabis is illegal and it is illogical to have it like that.”
Speaking after he had made an appeal to MPs at Westminster to legalise drugs, Mr Jones said there had been unforeseen consequences of the prohibition of drugs that caused more problems than it had solved.
He added: “Hard drugs like cocaine and heroin could be sold or prescribed from a secure pharmacy.
“But I think cannabis could be sold with the same level of security as alcohol is sold now in an off-licence.
“This would be with suitable age restrictions to prevent children buying it which is something we do not have now.”
Mr Jones said that the war on drugs had failed, was only making addiction a criminal offence and was a waste of police time.
“A lot of the addiction and the harm that is caused is caused because of the illegality of drugs. People are taking substances that they haven’t got a clue what is in them,” he said.
“At least if we regulated them it would be the same as alcohol, we’d know what the strength of what they were taking was.
“People would be able to chose which cannabis, whether it was high THC or high CBD cannabis which would affect the mental health aspect.
He added: “A lot of the problems around drugs are caused by prohibition and strong enforcement.
“It just doesn’t work. I think prohibition kills a lot of people unnecessarily and if we did regulate, we could divert police resources towards harmful behaviours like child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse and modern slavery rather than waste it on prosecuting minor possession of drugs.
“Prosecution for minor possession of drugs is a waste of time.”
Mr Jones, a former police officer in the force, told MPs that he first decided that drugs should be legalised when he witnessed the response to a similar call by the then Chief Constable for North Wales, Richard Brunstrom.
“When Richard Brunstrom, my former Chief Constable produced his report back in 2007 around the regulation of drugs he was vilified across North Wales and the UK.
“I read that report and I thought yes, the penny drops – what he’s saying in here makes absolute sense.”