6 days ago
Smelling cannabis in public makes me feel unsafe, police chief says
The police and crime commissioner lead for substance misuse has said cannabis is 'chronically dangerous'.
David Sidwick, who is the police and crime commissioner for Dorset, backed the College of Policing's stance that the smell of the drug on British streets is 'a sign of crime and disorder'.
Sir Andy Marsh, the chief executive of the College of Policing and a former chief constable of Avon and Somerset, said smoke made him feel unsafe in his own community and it was the sort of problem that police 'ought to do something about'.
It comes after Sir Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, among others, called for possession of small quantities of the class B drug to be decriminalised.
Sidwick told The Times: 'I'm really pleased that the College of Policing is taking this seriously because going soft on this stuff doesn't work. The reason why the smell of cannabis is so prevalent is because we've had 30 years of people saying it isn't dangerous.
'I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 30 years and this drug has long-term chronic side effects. It is associated with more birth defects than thalidomide and is linked to more than 20 cancers. Not to mention the issues with psychosis and drug driving.'
Sidwick wrote a letter last month to the police minister Diana Johnson which was signed by 13 other police and crime commissioners claiming that the effect of the drug in society 'may be far worse' than heroin.
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He said: 'It is a chronically dangerous drug that we haven't gripped. The whole world has been subjected to a PR campaign in the other direction. Some of those countries who have legalised it are trying to put the genie back in the bottle — Thailand and the [Porto] mayor in Portugal — but once it is out it is staying out.'
Marsh, who is in charge of national police standards, told the Daily Mail: 'In my community, my kids are too frightened to use the bus stop because it always stinks of cannabis. Policing is about creating an environment that people feel safe in.
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'I'm speaking from personal experience and people I talk to. If I walk through a town, city, or even village centre and I smell cannabis, it does actually have an impact on how safe I feel.
'One definition of what police should be doing is — [if] something [is] happening which does not feel right, someone ought to do something about it.'
'For me, the smell of cannabis around communities feels like a sign of crime and disorder.'
Marsh, speaking before the start of a new leadership programme for policing, was supported by Sir Stephen Watson, the chief constable of Greater Manchester, and Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of Merseyside, who retires next month.
They said police forces were in a 'foot race for public confidence' and could no longer ignore what have traditionally been seen as the 'little things'.
Watson said: 'This is the so-called lower level stuff, but actually it really isn't lower level stuff in the sense that this is where the public take their cues as to how safe or otherwise they feel, and how effective or otherwise is policing.
'The public aren't going to give us top marks for being brilliant at investigating murder alone. They expect us to be a full-spectrum organisation and that is what we are seeking to inspire in those who come forward for this course.'
Their intervention follows a report, backed by Khan, which recommended that possession of cannabis be dealt with under the Psychoactive Substances Act rather than the Misuse of Drugs Act and that possessing small quantities for personal use should not be a criminal act. The maximum penalty for possession is five years in prison.
The report said policing of cannabis possession 'continues to focus on particular ethnic communities, creating damaging, long-lasting consequences for individuals, wider society and police-community relations'.
The Home Office said it had 'no intention' of changing the drug's status.
