Middle classes back softer drug laws

One of Scotland Yard's most senior officers has claimed the white middle classes are backing plans to soften the laws on cannabis because they are ignorant of the worst aspects of drug abuse.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller, head of the Yard's drugs directorate, was commenting on a MORI survey released earlier this year which showed there was a greater support for the Lambeth cannabis experiment among white people (41 per cent) than black (28 per cent) and Asian (25 per cent).

He said many white people did not experience first-hand some of the results of drug dealing on the streets.

The pilot cannabis project, in which people caught with small amounts of cannabis are warned but not prosecuted, has apparently won overwhelming support from the community and saved 1,350 hours of police time.

In an interview in a Sunday newspaper Mr Fuller says one of the reasons more white people seem to support the scheme is because they "don't always experience the worst aspects of drug abuse and drug taking.

"A lot of black and Asian communities are living among this and witness the drugs paraphernalia, hear the shootings, see kids sitting around smoking joints in the streets, experience people offering them drugs and jostling in the street."

Mr Fuller, the country's most senior black officer, has raised concerns about the success of the Lambeth scheme, saying the aims and procedures of the experiment have not been well communicated to the police or the public - most of whom believed, mistakenly, that cannabis had been legalised.

Police are waiting for a decision from the Home Secretary on plans to reclassify cannabis from class B to class C.