Policing cannabis

If evidence were needed of the mess surrounding the UK’S drugs laws, we need look no further than the curious case of the cannabis clubs. These institutions have been springing up around the country with the tacit approval of the police. There are now an estimated 160 such clubs and at least two police and crime commissioners, responsible for overseeing local crime policy, have openly championed the idea. The clubs meet in private homes and advertise themselves as safe places to consume the Class B drug, which is not sold in order to avoid prosecution for trafficking. The obvious problem, however, is that it remains illegal to possess cannabis.

Yet for years it has become apparent that, where “low level” cannabis consumption is concerned, the police simply turn a blind eye. Some chief constables would prefer the ban to be relaxed or removed so they could focus on the gangs pushing harder drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.

But things are not so simple. Cannabis users have to buy their drugs from pushers who also offer other substances. Encouraging one market fuels the other. There are also varieties of cannabis, known as skunk, with a high content of chemicals linked to psychotic mental health episodes. Yet as we report today, police are now also allowing users to grow their own plants unchecked, provided they have fewer than 10 at any one time.

There are arguments for decriminalising cannabis, and especially to allow its medicinal use. But for as long as Parliament has decreed that the drug is illegal, it is not for the police to change policy unilaterally by ignoring the law.