School orders parents to stop smoking cannabis

A PRIMARY school has had to tell parents to stop smoking cannabis at its gates, triggering criticism of the local police force’s ‘soft’ approach to the drug.

Headteacher Pauline Northcott sent out a strongly worded newsletter after reports that the illegal drug was being shared and smoked ‘at the bottom of the school yard’. Mrs Northcott, head of Dean Bank Primary and Nursery School in Ferryhill, Co Durham, said she had received reports in November that some parents had smoked cannabis ‘directly outside of the school gates’.

She told parents the issue had been reported to the police. But critics blamed the ‘soft touch’ policy introduced by Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton in 2015, under which people who use small amounts escape prosecution.

One father, who did not want to be named, said: ‘You would have thought anything around kids or schools, the police would be right on it. But they’re not bothered.’

David Raynes, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: ‘The more people think it is acceptable, the more likely it is that parents will think it is fine to smoke cannabis at the school gates around children. It is no business of the chief constable to undermine national legislation.’

But Mr Barton said: ‘If I had been next to someone who was smoking cannabis at the school gate, they would have been nicked – pure and simple. Any of my officers would have done the same. ’