Cannabis possession rate falls 75pc in a decade

CANNABIS possession offences have dropped up to 75 per cent in 10 years, as MPS have accused police of decriminalising the drug.

New figures show that the number of recorded crimes for possessing cannabis have plummeted across UK police forces since 2008, with more than half recording 40 per cent fewer cannabis crimes.

The drop comes despite cannabis remaining the most popular drug in the country.

The highest drop was overseen by Greater Manchester Police, where the number of cannabis possession crimes fell by 75 per cent. The crime also declined in Leicestershire by 70 per cent and 67 per cent in Cambridgeshire.

Only three of the 43 forces showed any significant increase on 2008: Wiltshire (33 per cent), Dorset (9 per cent) and Bedfordshire (9 per cent).

The figures, collated by The Times, come amid growing calls from police chiefs and police and crime commissioners for a review of legislation on drugs, particularly around cannabis.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP and a former health minister, said: “What we are witnessing is a de facto drift towards decriminalisation but without any debate, without any role of government, without national oversight. This is police and PCCS [commissioners] exercising judgment when faced with almost impossible restrictions on resources.”

Mr Lamb said that he had failed to persuade Norfolk police that it was not in the public interest to proceed in prosecuting a middle-aged constituent who used cannabis for chronic pain. Norfolk has had a reduction in cannabis offences of just over 16 per cent in the last 10 years.

He said: “The Government ought to be leading on this because at the moment it’s a haphazard process; you might end up with a criminal record in one part of the country but not in another.”

However, Dee Collins, the outgoing chief constable of West Yorkshire, called for tolerance and compassion for young cannabis users, telling The Times: “We don’t decriminalise it. What we do is deal with the lower level offences such as possession of a very small amount with a street caution or an outcome that doesn’t necessarily involve going through the court process.”

West Yorkshire showed a modest decline in possession offences of 4.23 per cent, but its figures were low even in 2008. “I think our tolerance for lowerlevel drug taking has shifted, I’m talking about society,” Ms Collins added.

Asked if police had gone too soft on possession, she said: “Do we want to have a generation of people with crimi- nal records? Where is our tolerance and our forgiveness within society?”

The figures come after an Oxford University study last month found that smoking cannabis as a teenager could increase the risk of depression in adulthood by almost 40 per cent.

Researchers have warned that some of the strains being sold today are 10 times as strong as the varieties available 30 years ago.