The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APPC) has rejected the call to decriminalise small amounts of cannabis for personal use contained in the recent report from the London Drugs Commission. The APPC represents police and crime commissioners (PCCs) and police, fire and crime commissioners (PFCCs), as well as deputy mayors in England and Wales.
While acknowledging that cannabis ‘can be addictive’ – and that more dedicated support services were needed – the London Drugs Commission report, which was published last week, said that controlling it as a class B drug was ‘disproportionate’. The sentencing options – especially for personal possession – could ‘not be justified’ when balanced against the impact on the individual, it added. Cannabis policing also disproportionately affected ‘particular ethnic communities’, it said, creating ‘damaging, long-lasting consequences for individuals, wider society, and police-community relations’. Although fully legalising the drug would boost tax revenues and reduce ‘criminalisation’, the ‘extent of harms, particularly with respect to public health, as well as personal and societal costs, take longer to emerge and are not yet well understood’.
‘It is clear that a fundamental reset is required,’ said the commission’s chair Lord Charlie Falconer – but full legalisation was not the answer. ‘The criminal justice system response needs to focus only on the dealers and not the users. Our report provides detailed recommendations on how the law needs to change to reflect a new focus for the criminal justice system, and how the response of the public and other sectors can better support those damaged by cannabis use.’ Although the report’s conclusions were endorsed by London mayor Sadiq Khan, the government has stated that it would not be changing its position on the drug’s classification.
‘While we recognise that this is an issue where some PCCs may take different views, we disagree with the commission’s recommendation that possessing a small amount of cannabis should be decriminalised,’ said the APCC’s addictions and substance misuse leads, Joy Allen and David Sidwick. ‘As this report recognises, cannabis is a harmful drug that has serious adverse effects on its users. It also rightly concludes that legalisation, as we have recently seen in other jurisdictions, would increase the availability of this harmful drug and could significantly amplify the health and mental health risks.’
Decriminalisation could risk making people more likely to use cannabis, they added, as well as create confusion around what constituted ‘a small amount’ and the difference between ‘natural’ and ‘synthetic’ cannabis. ‘We have previously argued for a more robust approach to policing the possession of cannabis and other drugs, but not a narrowly punitive one,’ they stated. ‘The focus should be on referring people who are using harmful drugs onto education and support programmes that can reduce their risks of future harm, and requiring them to attend. This approach is in line with the three-pillar approach combining enforcement, treatment and prevention to tackle illegal drug use, which has rightly been at the core of government policy.’
 London Drugs Commission report available here
Â