http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=105&ArticleID=1284430
Raymond curry
"THE specialist drugs courts being tested in Leeds and London are billed as the latest initiative aimed at reducing drug abuse and related crime, even though drug treatment and testing orders have been around for some time. Let us at least wish it success, however. It was announced last week that hard drug offences have risen by 16 per cent, but that the number of offences for the use of soft drugs has fallen by 21 per cent.
Of course the latter figure is hardly surprising since the Government has downgraded cannabis in the scale of offending, aided and abetted by some police forces in parts of the country, notably in some London boroughs.
Further, the latest set of guidelines emerging from the Home Office as to how and when the police may arrest and take action about drugs, for personal use or for supply to others, totally fails to address the problem of usage."
