Now cannabis dealers will escape jail despite government pledge for to

[jabez]

Author: James Slack

Date: 13th May 2008

Source: The Mail

Copyright: 2008 Associated Newspapers Ltd

 

 

 

Now cannabis dealers will escape jail despite government pledge for tougher punishments

 

 

 

 

Cannabis dealers will escape jail, despite Gordon Brown's decision to reclassify the drug, it emerged last night.

 

The U-turn was supposed to signal tougher punishments for those who flout the law.

 

But, under papers issued by the Sentencing Guidelines Council yesterday, magistrates will still be advised that a community order may be satisfactory for those who push Class B substances, the new grade for cannabis.

 

This is despite the maximum penalty being a 14-year prison sentence.

 

The SGC, headed by Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, is also advising magistrates they can give community punishments to yobs who carry knives or imitation firearms.

 

The Government has promised tough punishments for thugs who carry blades in public, following a series of fatal stabbings involving young people.

 

The maximum penalty was recently increased from two to four years.

 

But, under guidelines sent by the SGC to the country's 30,000 magistrates, they say a fine or community penalty will be sufficient if there was no intention to cause fear.

 

Even when a knife was brandished in a dangerous way, a high-level community penalty could suffice, although it would normally carry a six-week jail term.

 

A mitigating factor could be that the knife is only being carried on a "temporary basis".

 

For imitation firearms - also the subject of recent Government crackdowns - a tough community punishment is considered the starting point.

 

Mitigating factors, such as the weapon not being in sight, could reduce this even further.

 

The SGC has set down, for the first time in four years, a range of sentencing options for every crime which can be dealt with at a magistrates' court.

 

The most controversial is likely to be that covering Class B drugs, given the decision to reclassify cannabis was announced only last week. It had been downgraded by Labour in 2004.

 

The rules say cannabis users who grow their own plants and occasionally provide marijuana to their friends could be let off with a fine or community punishment.

 

Those who supply larger amounts of cannabis or other drugs to share with a small circle of friends could also escape with a community penalty.

 

Tory justice spokesman Nick Herbert said: "Once again we see mixed messages going out about drugs.

 

"Just as the Government finally admits that they got it wrong when they lowered the classification of cannabis, these guidelines would see most dealers receive weak and often poorly enforced community sentences."

 

Smoking cannabis may raise the risk of heart attacks, authoritative research shows.

 

The finding adds to growing evidence that the drug can affect physical as well as mental health.

 

Researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore focused on apolipoprotein, a blood protein that regulates the breakdown of fats linked to heart disease.

 

Levels were much higher in cannabis smokers. This raised the amount of dangerous fats in the blood, according to a report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

 

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/a...in_page_id=1770

[jimbojones5678]

Extremely vague intentions - but go Rudd anyhoo....

[WantDaChronic]

guess somone reliazed that if pot is upgraded to a higher classification it would mean harsher punishments for those caught with the drug. thats not really a bad thing if you want to appear as though you are being tough on drugs, but in reality all it does is clog the courts and prisons with pot smokers which is downright stupid

[Fat Freddies Cat]

I reckon it's also a great tool for raising revenue from fines, boosting arrest numbers to hit targets so they can say the WAR AGAINST CRIME in general is being won, identifying the growers and all without filling up our already bursting prisons.

 

Total bunch of no hopers.

 

Grrrrgrumblespitvomit bloody politics.

[mega]

it looks like the game is the same everywhere ...