Fifteen per cent of all prisoners are serving sentences for offences related to drugs - mostly possession of cannabis. Two years ago the number of British people given a criminal record for cannabis use passed one million. It's teenagers to pensioners, from long-term unemployed to people in a steady job. It criminalises large numbers of otherwise law-abiding, mainly young, people to the detriment of their futures'. The British Medical Association has declared cannabis 'very safe', and the respected medical journal, the Lancet, said it was 'less of a threat than alcohol or tobacco'.
Most people caught in possession of cannabis are likely to be cautioned.
The police computer will come up with the offence if they try to get a job in the law, medicine, accountancy, the prison service, teaching or any work involving young or vulnerable people. A multiple sclerosis sufferer in Scotland who used cannabis for medicinal reasons wanted to go to the US for medical treatment. The US revoked her visa after it found out about her 'criminal' past. In Carlisle Crown Court tomorrow, Alan Mason will challenge the cannabis laws as an infringement of human rights. A former television producer from Carlisle in Cumbria, he is being prosecuted for possession, cultivation and intention to supply.