Met chief: cannabis law is in a muddle

Scotland Yard chief Sir John Stevens today launched an outspoken attack on the confusion surrounding the new cannabis laws.

The Met Commissioner said there was a "massive amount of muddle" about the official position on the drug.

His comments will fuel the mounting controversy about the changes to the cannabis laws first highlighted by the Evening Standard on Monday.

From 29 January, cannabis is to be downgraded from a class B to a class C drug.

However, lawyers have described the move as a "shambles", saying it gives the impression that cannabis is being legalised.

Sir John said the police and the Government needed to get out a simple message to schools and young people clarifying the legal position on the possession of the drug.

Speaking on LBC Radio, he said: "I think there is a massive amount of muddle about where we are on cannabis.

"The position is that the use and possession of cannabis is still against the law in this country." He said it was essential to clarify the position with regard to people who have a small amount of cannabis for their own use.

As from the end of the month the maximum penalty for possession will be reduced to two years.

Officers will be told not to arrest adults using cannabis in their own homes, and only to confiscate it if used in public. But anyone using it near schools and all under-18s will still face arrest.

Sir John said the issue had been raised by many police officers concerned that young people were being given confused messages about the new laws.

The Commissioner also admitted that he had made "a big mistake" in launching the "softly-softly" cannabis pilot scheme in Brixton.

Sir John said proposals to change the law first started with the pilot scheme in Lambeth in July 2001, where people caught in possession of small amounts of the drug were warned rather than arrested.

He said: "I think I made a big mistake because of the nature of Brixton and because a large amount of attention was focused on Brixton which made it like a goldfish bowl. We should have done a pilot in a number of other boroughs as well."

However, he defended the former Lambeth commander Brian Paddick's original decision to question the laws on cannabis because officers were wasting time prosecuting people for possession of the drug, only for them to be issued with small fines or let off altogether.

Recent figures showed the number of people being caught with cannabis in Lambeth had rocketed threefold since police introduced the softly-softly approach.