Police chilled at dope clubs
POLICE have been accused of giving tacit approval to “cannabis clubs” where paying members can meet and take the drug without fear of prosecution.
At least two police and crime commissioners (PCCS) have visited or endorsed the clubs, of which there are 160 from Dundee to the Isle of Wight.
Despite the fact possession of cannabis remains illegal and can result in a maximum five-year prison sentence, many forces no longer treat the offence as a priority, with some police leaders even calling for the law to be relaxed. According to the chairman of the United Kingdom Cannabis Social Clubs (UKCSC), none of the 160 groups operating across the country has ever been raided by the police.
Arfon Jones, the PCC for North Wales, visited one cannabis club and said: “There are pubs and clubs where people go and drink alcohol, so why shouldn’t consenting adults be able to use cannabis recreationally and without causing anyone any harm?”
POLICE leaders were last night rebuked by the Government for failing to enforce the law after it emerged that scores of cannabis clubs have sprung up allowing people to smoke the drug with apparent impunity.
Initially launched to provide a safe space for people who used the Class B drug to help with medical conditions, there are now more than 160 cannabis clubs operating in towns and cities across the UK.
Members pay as little as £35 a year to join and can then gather three or four times a week to smoke and share the drug with like-minded people. They can purchase seeds in order to grow the drug and then share it with other users at cost price.
Details of the clubs are openly available online and organisers insist they are helping to take the trade out of the hands of violent and ruthless criminals, with most members now social rather than medical users.
The explosion in the number of cannabis clubs comes as police forces, struggling with shrinking budgets, increasingly prioritise the fight against violent crime and other more serious offences over low level drug users.
But last night a Home Office spokesman insisted that while it was an operational decision for police chiefs how they deployed their resources, they expected them to enforce the law.
The spokesman said: “The trade and possession of recreational cannabis is illegal in the UK, regardless of where you use it. Scientific and medical evidence is clear that recreational cannabis use can cause harm to individuals and society. Those using it should be in no doubt that if they are caught they face prosecution and a maximum jail term of five years.
“How police choose to pursue investigations is an operational decision for chief constables, but we are clear that we expect them to enforce the law.”
But organisers of the cannabis clubs claim to have had good support from police in their local areas and none have ever been raided or forced to close down.
At least two elected police and crime commissioners have even visited clubs and have praised the way they operate.
Arfon Jones, the North Wales police and crime commissioner, who visited a cannabis club in Teesside last year said: “I wanted to see how it was run. The members bring their own cannabis – it isn’t grown on the premises and they’re not dealing or supplying. They pay an annual membership fee to be a member of what is a social club where they
‘There are pubs and clubs where people go and drink alcohol, so why shouldn’t consenting adults be able to use cannabis recreationally and without causing anyone any harm?’
go to use cannabis. There are 150 members paying £35 a year and why not?
“There are pubs and clubs where people go and drink alcohol, so why shouldn’t consenting adults be able to use cannabis recreationally and without causing anyone any harm – and the location is such that there is no Nimbyism.”
The first formal cannabis club appeared in Britain in 2011, but they have since expanded to every corner of the country.
Greg de Hoedt, who is chairman of UK Cannabis Social Clubs, explained that he started the network after being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.
After being told he had only two years to live and going through a round of chemotherapy, Mr de Hoedt travelled to America and found that medicinal cannabis alleviated his suffering.
He said: “I was invited out by people who ran a dispensary and they gave me two grams of oil a day.
“Within six months I had a full bill of health. When I came back here I set up cannabis social clubs to show an alternative way that things can be done.”
He said since the network was set up he was not aware of any police raids, or any member being arrested entering or leaving any cannabis club.
He said the clubs did not sell cannabis, but explained: “If they can grow it, or have the ability to grow it, they can grow it and share it between a group of members at a fair trade cost, then that’s what they do.”
He said that the cannabis costs under £5 per gram, rather than £10 or £15 a gram on the street and that members of the cannabis clubs were making “huge savings”. “We aren’t doing it for money, it’s not for the profit, it is so people have a safe product. Prohibition has failed. Lets just make it safer for them.”
Last night Hardyal Dhindsa, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire, and the national lead on substance misuse, called for a national policy on cannabis clubs to be introduced. He said: “The war on drugs is not working. My job is to find good practice for enforcement and treatment, and trying to find consensus.
“I personally, as the national lead will look into this to see what the extent of the activity is with these clubs and how police forces have responded to this activity.”
Commander Simon Bray, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Drugs, said: “The possession of cannabis at socalled cannabis clubs is a criminal offence. It is a matter for chief constables, in liaison with their police crime commissioners, to determine the operational priorities for their force.
“Likewise, chief constables will determine how they address local crime issues of concern.”