CANNABIS TACTICS WRONG, SAYS FORMER TOP COP

A recently retired senior police officer who once
headed the National Drug Intelligence Bureau says
police have made a "tactical mistake" in the way
they deal with cannabis offences.

Detective Inspector Harry Quinn, who retired in
2008 after 37 years in the police, is calling on
senior police to lead a debate on the cannabis
issue, saying he is "disappointed" that no one in
the organisation is prepared to speak out. He
says this is because police see cannabis as a "political time bomb".

Quinn, who also helped set up the national
organised crime unit and was involved in numerous
cannabis eradication operations, says he took
flak within police for writing a report
recommending a relaxation of cannabis
enforcement, which would have involved issuing warnings to adult social
users.

A similar model has been suggested by the Law
Commission, but the government has indicated it will not be changing drug
laws.

Quinn's comments come after a recent hardline
approach to cannabis, including the nationwide
raids in April on hydroponic gardening stores.

In the latest edition of Norml News, the magazine
of the National Organisation for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, member Stephen McIntyre says the
April raids signal a "war on cannabis" by police
and that previously there had been a degree of
tolerance towards home cultivation for personal
use. Law reformists say there is a perception
from police that because the National government
is tough on crime, they should clamp down on all areas of drug enforcement.

Elsewhere in the world, authorities are relaxing
their attitude to marijuana, with US President
Barack Obama saying medical users will not be
pursued, and Californians are set to vote on
measures to legalise the recreational use of cannabis.

Quinn told the Sunday Star-Times cannabis law did
not need to be changed =AD but the way police
enforced it did. They should rigorously prosecute
anyone caught dealing drugs near schools or to
youth, and anyone caught with cannabis in a
vehicle, but go easy on adult recreational users, he said.

"If someone who is 40 years old is sharing a
joint with their 42-year-old neighbour, they
should simply tell them to put it out. Why we are
wasting time prosecuting adults for the use of
cannabis? I'm buggered if I know."

He said the Misuse of Drugs Act clearly
differentiated between those dealing to young
people and adult recreational users.

"Police ignored it completely and dealt with all
offenders in the cannabis realm exactly the same.
I think that was a tactical mistake."

He said there were worse drugs to worry about.
"The big guns in the police should be pointed at
the drugs which affect people's lives and can
kill people =AD that's not cannabis."

Quinn said senior police needed to take another
look at the law and issue guidelines to all
officers "so it permeates all through.

"It's not a soft approach, it's just a different
way of dealing with the problem."

But Detective Sergeant Paul Tricklebank, of the
Drug Intelligence Bureau, said cannabis was
harmful and a gateway to harder drugs. He said
police did not pursue social users, only growers, dealers and gang suppliers