A group of Tory police commissioners have sparked a backlash after calling for cannabis to be reclassified from a Class B to Class A drug. The move would put the drug in the same category as heroin and cocaine.
Arfon Jones, former Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for North Wales, branded the idea "draconian". And drug experts warned against a "ramping up" of the "punitive prohibitions that have so spectacularly failed for over 50 years".
During the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, some PCCS presented an argument for reclassification which would mean tougher penalties for cannabis offences. The PCCs included Dorset's David Sidwick, Devon and Cornwall's Alison Hernandez, and Avon and Somerset's Mark Shelford.
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PCCs are elected to hold police forces to account but do not control police operations. There are no plans to reclassify cannabis, according to the Home Office.
Mr Sidwick said cannabis is "driving harm" in communities, adding: "We're seeing it because it's a gateway drug. If you look at the young people in treatment, the number one drug they are in treatment for is cannabis... There are so many crimes linked to drugs that, actually, by addressing this, by giving us this clarity, it makes it clearer for our police to be able to do what they need to do."
Possession of a Class A drug can mean up to seven years in prison, while suppliers and producers can be sentenced to life. For Class B substances, sentences are up to five years for possession and up to 14 years for supply or production.
Mr Jones was a North Wales Police inspector before becoming a Plaid Cymru PCC for the force from 2016 to 2021. He told WalesOnline: "The comments made by the Police and Crime Commissioners in support of reclassifying cannabis to Class A are both disjointed and draconian, and are not supported by any evidence. History has shown that the prohibition of cannabis over the last 50 years has not been effective and use has increased.
"In 2009, the then-Labour Government changed the classification of cannabis from Class C to Class B despite their own advisors, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, stating that the harms associated with cannabis did not reach the threshold to be classified even as a Class B drug.
"This reclassification to B did not reduce the use of cannabis. Instead it has seen a substantial increase, suggesting that sentence severity has no impact on the consumption of cannabis. Evidence across the world shows that regulation of cannabis does reduce its use particular in younger age groups.
"Public figures like Police and Crime Commissioners should only call for change when they have evidence to support their call rather than making populist partisan noises to appeal to their bases, which leads to further stigmatising of the drug-using population."
The comments also attracted criticism from drug policy analysts Steve Rolles and Niamh Eastwood, who argued in the Telegraph that the proposal "flies in the face of all evidence and reason". They wrote: "While cannabis classification bounced up and down through the Noughties, levels of use were gradually ticking downwards, seemingly unbothered by Westminster’s classification debates. Young people, it seems, do not generally consult the home secretary for drug advice before heading out at the weekend.
"Cannabis use is evidently creeping up once again, along with cannabis potency. Despite more than two million criminal records being issued for cannabis offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the use of cannabis has actually risen at least five-fold in the same period.
"And while drug law enforcement has proven a remarkably expensive yet ineffective tool for reducing cannabis use and related health harms, criminalisation has been shown to cause significant harm, limiting educational and employment opportunities and increasing the likelihood of future offending and problematic drug use."
Mr Rolles, of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, and Ms Eastwood, of the Release centre, continued: "Over 40 jurisdictions around the world have now decriminalised cannabis possession, and many have gone further, with Canada, Uruguay, 19 US states, Germany, Mexico, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Malta amongst those implementing legally regulated adult-use markets. We certainly need meaningful change — but absolutely not a ramping up of the same failed punitive prohibitions that have so spectacularly failed for over 50 years."
And Peter Reynolds, the president of CLEAR, which calls for cannabis legalisation, said a reclassification to Class A would be "completely crazy." He accused the PCCs of "promoting ideas which will increase crime, violence and child exploitation".
Mr Reynolds told the BBC: "The idea of doing more of the same as the past 50 years, which has quite obviously dramatically failed, is ridiculous. The only people who want this are ignorant politicians and the people who sell illegal drugs, I'm crystal clear about that."
Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote in a recent letter to police forces that drug-related crimes were not being taken seriously enough. But a spokesperson for the Home Office said: "There are currently no plans to reclassify cannabis, which is controlled as a Class B drug in the UK on the basis of clear medical and scientific evidence of its harms." You can read more of the latest crime news here.
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