It's interesting to note that people are not running madly naked in the
streets - that life goes on in England.
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England
Drug surge follows change in law
Police hit out after cannabis hauls
Martin Bright and Tony Thompson
Sunday February 20, 2005
The Observer
Demand for cannabis has exploded in the wake of the relaxation of drugs
laws, according to senior Scotland Yard officers.
A series of massive seizures in south-east England in recent weeks have
alarmed law enforcement officials, who believe criminal gangs are
trafficking large quantities of cannabis because they believe police
'have taken their eye off the ball'.
Cannabis was reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug in January
2004. The move was intended to enable forces around the country to focus
on the trade in heroin and cocaine. But senior police at Scotland Yard
believe this move has sent out the wrong message to the gangs, who are
now switching their attention to the softer drug.
'One of the biggest growth areas is the shifting of organised crime
towards cannabis importation,' said a senior officer connected to the
Met's organised crime unit. 'The supply side has reacted to the
liberalisation because they think law enforcement has taken its eye off
the ball. We are now recovering tons of the drug at one time and that is
something we were never doing before. The decision to reclassify was wrong.'
Last night drug reformers reacted with fury to the police claims. Danny
Kushlick, director of Transform, a pressure group which opposes drug
prohibition, believes seizures are not an accurate indication of
increasing supply or demand. 'No one knows how much is coming in, nor
how big stockpiles are, so even a huge seizure cannot be seen as
evidence of anything. The goalposts are moved depending on what people
want to prove.'
This month, police and Customs officers raided a pub in Dagenham, Essex,
and recovered a record 1.37 tonnes of cannabis resin worth more than £4
million. In a separate operation a few days later, police stopped a
lorry on the A20 near Folkestone, Kent, and recovered more than 600
kilos of cannabis resin.
The Met's Assistant Commissioner, Tarique Ghaffur, who heads Scotland
Yard's specialist crime directorate, described the finds as 'some of the
biggest hauls of cannabis ever recovered'. Large seizures have also been
made in Norfolk and Sussex in recent weeks.
Reclassification is also blamed on an increase in the amount of
home-grown cannabis entering the market. Last year, police in London
uncovered one of the biggest cannabis farms in a south London warehouse,
which used more than 6,500 plants to produce £1m of the drug each year.
No official figures for London or the rest of England and Wales are
available, but the concerns within the Met echo those of police in
Scotland. With three months to run until the end of the statistical
year, provisional figures show there has already been a 14 per cent
increase in the amount of cannabis resin seized across the country.
In Fife, seizures have risen tenfold in the past year. Detectives have
also noted a significant increase in the number of home-grown cannabis
plants being recovered. In Strathclyde, seizures of plants have more
than doubled in the past year, while in Tayside there has been a sixfold
increase. The price of cannabis resin has also fallen in Scotland, seen
by many as a further indicator of an increased level of supply
Last week, one of Britain's biggest drug barons, Curtis Warren, was
charged with attempting to smuggle 500 kilos of cannabis into Britain,
organising the venture from his Dutch jail cell.
Sources say the fact that Warren, who made millions smuggling cocaine in
the UK, has become involved with cannabis is a sign of how attractive
and lucrative the trade has become. Studies have shown that
reclassification has led to widespread confusion among Britain's youth,
many of whom mistakenly believe the drug is now legal.
The Observer has also learnt that cannabis produc tion is increasing in
the source countries. Earlier this month, customs officials in the
north-eastern Indian state of Assam made their largest seizure of
cannabis and arrested six smugglers who were going to transport 10
tonnes of the drug.
Police concerns are not supported by the most recent figures from the
British crime survey, indicating that cannabis use is falling, though
these figures do not fully allow for the effect of reclassification. The
Home Office said there was no evidence that the change had led to an
increase in demand.
A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said the
position of chief constables remained unchanged. 'We continue to support
the government's decision to reclassify cannabis.'
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