West Crime Tsar 'Off Base' Over Cannabis Views

Claim that drug should be made class a 'misleading'

- Carl Eve

A retired crime commissioner and a charity chief have rounded on suggestions by Devon and Cornwall's crime commissioner that cannabis should be reclassified as a class A drug, alongside crack cocaine and heroin.

Jason Reed, co-executive director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP UK) - a United Nations accredited non-government organisation and charity - said the idea put forward last month by Alison Hernandez was "dangerously off base". He emphasised that her view did not take into account a number of important facts and highlighted how LEAP's expertise in the field was recognised, thanks to its inclusion of members of law enforcement, military and others who have worked at the drugs frontline.

He said his organisation called for "evidence and health-based approaches to drug policy in order to make society safer, loosen the grip of organised crime, and help give services the chance to deal with drugs in appropriate manners."