STILL NOT A DEALER
By Rosa Prince Political Correspondent
DRUG dealers will be able to get away with carrying 10 wraps of heroin or 500 cannabis joints under controversial Government guidelines announced yesterday.
The Home Office plans to fix the size of a "stash" that drug users will be allowed to carry for their own personal use.
But Home Secretary Charles Clarke was immediately accused of letting dealers off the hook because they could deliberately carry just under the limit and escape prosecution for supplying.
For heroin, crack or cocaine, the Home Office suggests an allowance of seven grams in bulk or 10 individual "wraps", in which individual portions of the drug are parcelled up in paper.
Users would also be allowed to carry up to 10 ecstasy tablets; 14 grams or 10 wraps of amphetamine; 4oz or 10 lumps of cannabis resin; and 0.5 kilograms or 20 bags of loose marijuana leaf measuring 2in by 2in.
Four ounces of cannabis is enough to make more than 500 joints.
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Supplying an illegal substance usually results in a long prison sentence while possession for personal use leads to a caution, fine or short jail term.
A consultation period with police, courts and drugs agencies will run until March but already critics have slammed the plans.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: "If police and prosecutors take these proposals as a rule of thumb, a lot of dealers are going to be let off the hook."
He added: "Set the limit too low, and you treat all users as dealers. Set it too high, and many dealers will argue that the drugs were for personal use."
Shadow home affairs minister Cheryl Gillan said: "The laying down of official guidelines on what constitutes possession and dealing will help dealers know what they can and can't get away with. We can expect to see them carry around just less than the prescribed amount so that if they get caught, they will have a powerful case that it is only for their personal use.
"When a threshold is set and it is set so high, this will not help in the fight against illegal drug use, it will make it harder."
In the past, the Association of Chief Police Officers has advised against setting limits, fearing dealers would carry an amount just under the permitted level.
Currently, police or magistrates decide whether the level of drugs is for personal use or not.
A Home Office spokesman said of the new proposals: "This is to clarify the point at which the quantity of drugs in a person's possession becomes above and beyond that reasonably held for personal use, and so help the courts to differentiate between possession and intent to supply.
"There is no question of going soft on the individuals that are involved in dealing and profit from the misery of drugs. These measures were, in fact, called for by the police to set supply thresholds in order to eliminate any inconsistency between forces in catching and prosecuting drug dealers."
Meanwhile, a trial starts today that will see anyone arrested for for burglary or street robbery tested for drugs.
It will operate in Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
I wonder if these uk ministers are relaxing these drugs if it will even ban khat, and what benefits they will get by making this move.
Now the uk is turning out like holland which thinks legalising every drug and prostitution will solve all their problems. Now these ministers might even legalise robbery next and murder.
I like americas zero tolerance on crime and drugs.