Alan Lodge's Blog

Blunkett the brave

A long overdue drugs law reform

Leader

Thursday July 11, 2002

The Guardian

David Blunkett’s statement to the Commons yesterday was far more than just a reclassification of cannabis. But it will be the downgrading of pot to a less harmful category that will hit the headlines. Tens of thousands of young people across all classes will benefit from this change. We have the most stringent drug laws in Europe, but we have the highest number of young users. An estimated 2.5 million people smoke cannabis every year. The current law has not deterred these young people, only criminalised them – as well as wasting huge amounts of police time. Reform of the law was long overdue.

Currently, some 90% of all drug offences are for possession and just 10% are for dealing. About 75% of possession offences involve cannabis, some 90,000 cases a year. Each arrest takes up to five hours of police time to administer. What happens to the offender remains a lottery; the caution rate ranges from 22% to 72% of cases depending on the police service. None of this has the approval of the public or the police. Opinion polls show almost 60% of the public think possession should not be a criminal offence and 99% want it at the bottom of police priorities. Senior police officers have been pressing for change, to give them more time to deal with hard drugs.

In future, people who are caught in possession of cannabis will in normal circumstances lose the drug but will not be arrested. The drug has rightly been reclassified within category C, the least harmful class. But, bending to noisy opponents, the home secretary will make provision for arrest in certain circumstances, such as when children are involved or when users provocatively puff cannabis fumes into a police officer’s face. Few people get sent to prison now for possession, but even fewer will do so in future; it should have been made a non-imprisonable offence. Dealers will remain liable to a category B sentence (14 years); this is too high, and could endanger students who share the weed.

Keith Hellawell, the former drug tsar, opposed the changes yesterday but made a fool of himself in doing so, claiming not to know where the reclassification advice had come from. Is he that out of touch? The Police Foundation’s national commission, which brought together two chief constables, leading lawyers and drugs advisers, recommended the change two years ago, before Mr Hellawell was deposed. Their view has subsequently been supported by the advisory council on drug misuse and the Commons home affairs select committee. It has been piloted in Brixton with such success (more dealers of hard and soft drugs arrested) that the Metropolitan police were already planning to roll it out across the capital even before yesterday’s moves. The Association of Chief Police Officers endorsed the change yesterday, leaving the Conservatives, who opposed it, somewhat flat-footed.

There are two other attractive parts of the new policy: an increase in treatment facilities and an expanded heroin prescribing programme, moving the addiction from a criminal offence to a medical need, an old and sensible approach. Traditionally, our drug policy has been hopelessly lopsided, spending 75% on enforcement (which does not work) and only 13% on treatment (which does). Since 1998, treatment numbers have increased by 8% a year, but there are still far too few places. Now a further £183m over three years will be invested. The balance will still not be right, but the move is in the right direction. The minister has declined to downgrade ecstasy from categories A to B, as reformers wanted, but Mr Blunkett has made a good start.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,753100,00.html

‘Hash is a part of student life’

Gerard Seenan

Thursday July 11, 2002

The Guardian

There is nothing like the presence of proud parents to make the average student reticent on the subject of drugs, but for some of Glasgow University’s new graduates cannabis is not a real drug anyway.

“It’s a part of student life,” said Tom yesterday. “You don’t need to seek it out; and, also, you would have to have lived a sheltered existence to have never come across hash at some point during your four years here. It’s a drug, in the way a pint or a fag is a drug, but not in the way smack is.”

For Tom – who did not want to give his second name, in case his opinions marred his parents’ joy at the degree scroll he was carrying – the home secretary’s plan to lower the classification of cannabis from class B to class C is not sensible.

“It’s just a cop out, isn’t it?” he said. “The police are not going to lift you at a party for having a half Q [eighth of an ounce] just now, so what difference will this make? It would make far more sense to legalise it completely.”

His friend, Graeme, agreed, while also being reticent about his surname. “Playing about with the classification is just tinkering around the edges. Why doesn’t he just admit you can’t do anything about people smoking blow, and there’s no point in trying? At least if you decriminalised cannabis you could concentrate resources more on the others.”

Student Nazir Ahmed was not impressed with the move either, though for different reasons. “There are loads of students who spend half their lives sitting around smoking and never doing anything. Cannabis is an easy drug to get into, and it can be destructive because of that.”

Michael O’Donnell was a bit confused about what the reclassification actually meant.

“It’s difficult to know what they’ll mean now, about ‘intent to supply’,” he said. “If, say, me and my mates all chipped in for an ounce, because it’s cheaper, and I went and got it, then I would be technically supplying – which is just nonsense. They won’t be treated as criminals for smoking it, but I would be for going to get it.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,753129,00.html

Blunkett gambleswith our children

The Sun 11 July 02

by george pascoe-watson

Deputy Political Editor

DAVID Blunkett last night admitted he is taking a giant gamble with Britain’s children by effectively legalising cannabis.

The Home Secretary ruled dope smokers WON’T be arrested.

They will be merely ticked off and have their drugs confiscated.

Mr Blunkett is downgrading cannabis to a Class C substance so police have more time to combat heroin and crack. The worry is more kids will turn to pot.

Furious Labour MP Kate Hoey accused him of risking the future of the nation’s youth, saying: In ten or 20 years’ time, are you certain that you will not look back on this day as the one when you got it wrong?

Mr Blunkett conceded the change was a gamble during stormy Commons exchanges. He said: There are no certainties when dealing with drugs policies. If there were, we would have found them by now.

He decided to reclassify cannabis as Class C despite fierce opposition from the Government’s own drugs czar Keith Hellawell.

Ex-chief constable Mr Hellawell made his feelings clear hours earlier by announcing he had quit.

Under historic changes, police will hand out fixed-penalty tickets to persistent dope users.

People caught smoking the drug in the street will effectively be let off with a caution.

An experiment in Kate Hoey’s constituency in Lambeth, South London, where officers turn a blind eye to cannabis, will be expanded across the capital within weeks.

The new approach will be nationwide by October. Miss Hoey said drug dealing and cannabis use had shot up since the Lambeth experiment began.

She fumed: The message going out to families across the country is very stark and uncomfortable.

Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin said: This is a muddled and dangerous policy. Why, if he is effectively decriminalising cannabis, does he still want people to buy their cannabis from criminals?

And Tory MP Andrew Lansley said: There will be more opportunity for dealers interested in moving people from cannabis to harder drugs.

Home Office officials insisted Mr Blunkett was NOT going soft.

They said seven out of ten drugs convictions were for dope and that police should concentrate on hard Class A substances.

A new offence of peddling outside schools will be brought in. And the maximum sentence for dealing in cannabis will be increased from five years to 14.

A cop in drug-plagued Brixton said: We see a lot of kids smoking pot. Before, we could arrest them and get them to speak to a referral worker now we can’t.

Dope trade

in the open air

By SARA NATHAN

On the streets of Brixton

A TRIO of men sat huddled together in the pouring rain looking furtively about as they passed around a sodden joint. It was only ten in the morning and the air was ripe with the smell of cannabis.

Nervous mums hurriedly walked past the small leafy square with their tots in pushchairs.

This was the scene in Brixton, South London, yesterday a few hours before David Blunkett announced the downgrading of cannabis.

I walked down bustling Brixton High Street to the cries of skunk and dope as traders peddled their wares.

Outside KFC where the toilets are locked to stop people injecting drugs a youth of 18 strolled up.

Dressed in a yellow string vest and black baggy trousers, he grinned broadly and said loudly: Skunk man, the finest.

Just yards away police officers, clad in black bullet proof vests, were patrolling.

Opposite Lambeth Town Hall, deadbeats sipped cans of lager and beer.

Tim Summers, 54, lit up a joint as I stood by. He is secretary of Cannabis Action London and smokes up to 40 joints a week.

He said: There’s so much weed around here that they’d have to get a special cannabis squad to stop it being sold.

Mum Nic Elborn, 32, walked past with her three-year-old-daughter Holly.

Nic, of neighbouring Herne Hill, said: I don’t want my little girl anywhere near drugs.

It’s a big problem and I don’t see how downgrading cannabis will solve it.

Back on the green, police were questioning a suspect. As I watched, a man sidled up and tried to sell drugs to me.

Drug users, dealers, cops and deadbeats … just a typical day in Brixton.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002311821,00.html

Blow me: it’s another crackpot Blunkett plan

By Boris Johnson

Telegraph 11/07/2002

You remember the Harry Enfield sketch about the two gay Dutch policemen. They pull up in their patrol car and one announces, with a smirk: “You know, here in Omsterdom we have had great success in reducing crime.” The other one preens his moustache. “Yes,” he says, “we have legalised burglary.”

That, pretty much, is the strategy that seems to have been pursued in Brixton, under the leadership of the visionary Commander Crackpot, alias Brian Paddick. They stopped arresting people for possession of cannabis, and lo, the police found their jobs a good sight easier.

It doesn’t matter if the whole population of Brixton reeks of ganja. The police no longer have to go through the rigmarole of nicking them, interviewing them, reading them their rights, cautioning them and then, inevitably, letting them go again. It is estimated that 1,350 police man hours have been saved, equivalent to the annual labours of 1.8 full-time officers.

It would be an exaggeration, however, to say that the policy has been an unqualified success. Friends who live there say that every street corner in Brixton is now occupied by someone well thugged up (ie wearing a cowled sweatshirt) and hissing “skunk” or “weed”. Trafficking and other drug offences have soared, and, in the words of local spokesperson Ros Griffiths: “This is not a drug or race issue. This is about a breakdown of law and order.” Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Vauxhall, is very worked up about the proliferation of dealers on the council estates, and one can see why. Commander Crackpot’s scheme hasn’t worked as he intended, for two reasons.

Brixton has been turned into an island of liberalism in a sea of repression. It has become the dope haven of England. On a hot day, one imagines that a vast aromatic hempen pall hangs over the whole of south London. He might as well have stuck big smiley faces all around the perimeter, with a legend saying – “Twinned with Amsterdam and Kingston, Jamaica”. If you wanted to get stoned or if you wanted to deal in drugs, Brixton was the place to go.

The second and more fundamental reason why Crackpot’s scheme didn’t work was that, even in Brixton itself, the policy was confused. It was neither legalisation nor a ban. It was puzzling to the populace. And that objection applies, in spades, to the measures announced suddenly, yesterday, by David Blunkett, who seems to have decided to turn Britain into a giant Brixton.

Pity poor Keith Hellawell, the late “drugs tsar”. It’s Ekaterinburg for him. He was there to wield the drugs knout over the drugs mouzhiks. And what happened? Revolution. Blunkett yesterday announced the declassification of cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug, and Crackdown has given way to Crackpot. Labour is suddenly pro-cannabis. Labour is soft on the weed. Isn’t it?

It is impossible to tell quite what Labour intends – and that is the central problem. There is a sound and intellectually defensible case for a complete legalisation of cannabis. My own view is that drugs are no good for you, and often very bad for you; people smoking dope are spine-cracking bores; and I am told by experts that dope is no longer the innocent substance of the 1970s. This stuff skunk, grown by special hydroponic West Indian sunlamps, is apparently so powerful that it can fry your brains as effectively as any Class A drug.

There is, nevertheless, the argument for legalisation, which you will have heard so many times that I will repeat it only very briefly. Yes, it is true that cannabis is medically dangerous – but then so is alcohol. Legalisation would rid the streets of the pushers of soft drugs, and it would leave the police free to pursue the dealers in heroin and crack. It is not at all clear that legalising soft drugs would encourage people to move on to hard drugs. Only one per cent of dope-smokers try Class A drugs; and if you could buy cannabis legally, you would not come into contact with the nasty characters who push heroin. That is the case for legalisation, and it is good as far as it goes.

There is also a coherent and robust case, as Hellawell seems to have argued, for being utterly ruthless and enforcing the law. You could make it clear, once and for all, that cannabis is an illegal substance, and that anyone caught dealing it or using it will feel the full force of the fuzz. That might galvanise the police, give them a clear and consistent objective, and scare the spliff-smoking population into suddenly flushing their little brown pellets into the water supply, so zonking out the fish.

Of course, this policy would not be popular with the police, since they would be called on to feel the collars of the 50 per cent of young people who have used cannabis, including the 20 per cent of 19- to 24-year-olds who have used it in the past month. To anyone walking around London, where you will catch daily whiffs of a smell that would have been exceptional 10 years ago, it is clear that proper enforcement would be a huge job. But it could, just, be done, and it has, like legalisation, the merit of consistency.

What you cannot do is continue to ban cannabis and maintain stiff theoretical sentences for dealing (10 years), while sending out a signal to young people that it is now OK to smoke it. That’s no way to get rid of the dealers, or the crime. The stuff is either legal or it isn’t.

Mr Blunkett is an ideological version of one of those hermaphroditic parrotfish. One day he feels the jackboot forming invisibly round his shins; the next day he seems to want to freak out and wear flowers in his hair. Labour can’t work out whether it is libertarian, authoritarian, vegetarian or Rotarian. There is no Third Way with cannabis. You can’t suck and blow at the same time – with or without inhaling.

Boris Johnson is MP for Henley and editor of The Spectator

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/07/11/do1102.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2002/07/11/ixopinion.html

Cannabis laws eased by Blunkett

BBC News Thursday, 11 July, 2002, 00:34 GMT 01:34 UK

Cannabis is to be reclassified as a less dangerous drug to free-up police resources to fight hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced.

He unveiled the controversial measure in the House of Commons just hours after the government’s former “drugs czar” Keith Hellawell said he had quit his role as a government adviser in protest.

It came shortly after Tony Blair defended the move during prime minister’s question time.

Mr Blunkett also announced that the controversial cannabis experiment, currently under way in London’s Brixton, would be extended across London.

The decision to reclassify cannabis was in response to a report by MPs arguing that drugs policy should focus on tackling the problems caused by heroin addicts.

‘Drugs are dangerous’

The change will put cannabis on a par with anti-depressants and steroids. Possession of small amounts would no longer be considered an arrestable offence.

Mr Blunkett countered suggestions that he was going “soft on drugs” by saying police would retain the power to arrest marijuana users in certain “aggravated” cases, such as when the drug is smoked near children.

We will not legalise or decriminalise any drugs, nor do we envisage a time when this will be appropriate

David Blunkett

He raised the maximum sentence for dealers of class B and C drugs from five years to 14 years

An education campaign will be launched, targeted at young people and emphasising that “all drugs are harmful and class A drugs are killers”.

“There will be an increasing focus on class A drugs,” the home secretary said.

No legalisation

“The message is clear – drugs are dangerous. We will educate, persuade and where necessary, direct young people away from their use.

“We will not legalise or decriminalise any drugs, nor do we envisage a time when this will be appropriate.”

Mr Blunkett placed heavy emphasis on the importance of drug treatment.

The committee recommended moving Ecstasy from class A to B, but Mr Blunkett rejected this, stressing: “It kills”.

‘Muddled, dangerous policy’

“Cannabis possession remains a criminal offence. I am determined that the police are able to control the streets and uphold order,” he said.

But shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin criticised the reclassification, warning that Mr Blunkett was handing control of cannabis to dealers.

The idea proposed by Mr Blunkett was a “muddled, dangerous policy” and would lead to an “open season for drug peddlers”, he said.

Roger Howard, chief executive of DrugScope, welcomed the measure but warned that the arrest powers in “aggravated” cases might “sow confusion in people’s minds”.

Mr Blunkett said the Association of Chief Police Officers would shortly issue national guidance that in the vast majority of cases “officers will confiscate the drugs and use warnings”.

Shooting galleries

He stressed: “Police time saved will be refocused on class A drugs.”

The government signalled its intention to downgrade cannabis last October.

Mr Hellawell has fallen out with the home secretary

Since then, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, comprising medical experts, and the all-party select committee have both backed the idea.

On other drugs Mr Blunkett said he accepted that expansion of “managed” prescriptions for heroin users will be necessary.

But he was not persuaded by the argument for “shooting galleries” – places where people take hard drugs in a safe environment.

‘Damage communities’

“We will clamp down on the dealers who prey on the young,” he said.

Earlier, former “drugs czar” Keith Hellawell said he handed in his notice in protest at plans to move cannabis to a lower category.

He launched a stinging attack on the proposals, which he claims will damage communities and lead to more drug use.

But the Home Office insisted Mr Hellawell supported the move when it was first floated last year.

Mr Hellawell, meanwhile, says he had made his reservations known to Mr Blunkett at a meeting last autumn.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_2120000/2120116.stm

Britain Eases Laws on Use of Cannabis

Reuters

Wednesday, July 10 2002 20:09:13 MST

LONDON (Reuters) – Britons, among the heaviest users of cannabis in Europe, will soon be able to smoke dope without fear of arrest after the government relaxed its laws on the drug in the face of a dramatic rise in its use.

Home Secretary David Blunkett told parliament Wednesday he would reclassify cannabis as a low risk, category C drug from July next year, making discreet possession of small amounts of it or smoking it in private a non-arrestable offence.

The downgrade will put cannabis in the same category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones.

But in a statement aimed directly at critics who accuse the government of “going soft” on drugs, Blunkett stressed that cannabis would remain illegal.

“We will not legalese or decriminalize any drug, nor do we envisage a time when this would be appropriate,” he said. “The message is clear. Drugs are dangerous. We will educate, persuade and where necessary direct young people away from their use.”

He rejected calls for the clubbers’ drug ecstasy to be downgraded from the Class A highest risk category and slammed ecstasy, crack and heroin as “the scourge of our time.”

“We are not persuaded that ecstasy should be downgraded. It can kill,” he said.

Despite Blunkett’s efforts to deliver a tough message, his move on cannabis prompted outrage on both sides of the political debate and sparked the resignation of the government’s own so-called former “Drugs Czar” and part-time advisor.

Keith Hellawell said Wednesday he had left his job because he could not agree with Blunkett’s decision on cannabis. “It’s moving further toward decriminalization than any other country in the world,” he said.

Opposition Conservative home affairs spokesman Oliver Letwin told parliament the downgrade would send “deeply confusing mixed messages” to cannabis users and would “give control over cannabis to the drugs dealers with the police turning away.”

HUGE INCREASE IN DRUG USE

A report published late last year showed cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in the European Union ( news – web sites), with at least one in 10 adults in the 15-nation group having used it.

The proportion of adults who had used cannabis ranged from 10 percent in Finland to 20-25 percent in Britain, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

An estimated five million people in Britain regularly use cannabis and government data show its use has risen sharply over the past two decades.

But Blunkett was keen to focus the majority of his statement on so-called hard drugs like crack and heroin.

“Over the last 30 years, the huge increase in the use of drugs, particularly hard drugs, has caused untold damage to the health, life chances and wellbeing of individuals,” he said.

The social and economic costs of drug abuse were “well in excess of 10 billion pounds ($15.5 billion) a year,” he added.

Britain tops the European Union league table on drug-related deaths and official estimates say it has around 250,000 so-called “problematic” drug abusers — mainly heroin addicts.

By Kate Kelland

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=586&e=6&u=/nm/20020710/wl_nm/britain_cannabis_dc

Top drugs adviser quits over cannabis plans

Guardian

Wednesday July 10, 2002

Government drugs adviser Keith Hellawell today announced his resignation in protest at the home secretary’s proposal to reclassify cannabis from class B to class C.

Mr Hellawell, the former drug tsar who is now a part-time adviser, also attacked as “spin” the government’s relaunching of its 10-year drugs strategy.

He said he had written to David Blunkett to inform him of his resignation.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s moving further towards decriminalisation than any other country in the world.

“I have resigned over this issue and over the issue of spin.”

Mr Hellawell, who was a chief constable before the prime minister, Tony Blair, appointed him to address international drugs issues, added: “I’m against it because of the message it gives. It’s actually a technical adjustment which in the reality of the law doesn’t make a great deal of difference.

“But it’s been bandied about by people as a softening of the law. It is a softening of the law and it’s giving the wrong message.

“It’s a personal initiative of David Blunkett. I don’t know where he got his advice from, he certainly didn’t get it from me.

He added: “But there is no evidence at all to indicate that there is any change in the system.

“Even his own committee says that cannabis is a dangerous substance, there’s an increase in use among young people, there’s an increase in people who are seeking treatment for the drug, and even in that report it does recognise that there is a link between cannabis and harder drugs.

“So why on earth, when there are these problems, we change our message and give a softer message, I do not know.”

A spokesman for the home secretary hit back at Mr Hellawell’s criticism, claiming his stance on cannabis appeared to have changed since a meeting last year.

“Keith Hellawell said to the home secretary in a meeting last autumn that he was fully supportive of the home secretary’s proposal to reclassify cannabis,” said the spokesman.

“This was a meeting before the home secretary made his announcement to the home affairs select committee [revealing he planned to reclassify the drug].

“He tendered his resignation last month to take effect in August but the Home Office kept this private at his request.

“The home secretary’s drug strategy to be announced this afternoon is not an alternative strategy but one that will build on the achievements of the first term while focusing on the challenges ahead,” he added.

Downing Street said today that officials were “bemused” by Mr Hellawell’s comments.

“He has had three meetings with (drugs minister) Bob Ainsworth and hasn’t indicated any concerns on this front,” said the spokesman for the prime minister, Tony Blair.

Mr Hellawell responded that he was puzzled why officials were claiming he had given his approval to Mr Blunkett’s reclassification plan.

“I only had one meeting with him which was quite short and covered a range of topics including policing and other matters. I expressed reservations about reclassification,” he said.

Also criticising what he called government spin, Mr Hellawell said: “Also today I understand, although I’ve been kept out of the discussions on this, there’s going to be a re-launch of the [drugs] strategy.”

He said he had become more concerned that the government was not addressing the strategy, adding: “There is just a sort of a re-packaging, a re-spinning of the issue to appear as if something has been done, and this is causing a great deal of problems on the streets, it’s causing a great deal of problems for parents who just don’t know where they are.

“Drugs are so important to all our families in this country, the politicians should not make political play out of it and should not take advantage by making political statements.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,752643,00.html

House of Commons Home Affairs – Third Report

9 May 2002.

Here you can browse the report together with the Proceedings of the Committee. The published report was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 9 May 2002.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmhaff/318/31802.htm

Lambeth Cop Says He’s Being Hounded By Homophobic Colleagues

Guardian

Monday March 25, 2002 6:52 AM

Lambeth police chief Brian Paddick claims he may be the victim of his “softly, softly” approach to cannabis.

Commander Paddick was last week removed from his duties after allegations about his private life emerged in a Sunday newspaper.

Mr Paddick and his supporters have condemned his treatment as a “witchhunt” from a small number of homophobic colleagues because of his sexuality.

He said: “They can’t attack my police record. They also found it difficult to criticise my approach to drugs because recent independent reports have backed me.

“So the only thing left to undermine me is my private life.”

Mr Paddick, Britain’s highest-ranking openly-gay police officer, says he feels he is being targeted because of his introduction of new ideas and ways of policing – and insists he has no regrets.

“In any war you get casualties,” he told The Mirror. “I’m a casualty in a bigger war.”

Commander Paddick told the paper he is not “soft” on drugs and insists that cannabis was still illegal and harmful.

His policy arose out of logistical concerns about the number of officers in the borough and the need to prioritise by clamping down on harder drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.

“If I was a commander for another borough that didn’t have the difficulties Lambeth has, or if I had another 250 extra officers, then I’d probably not have suggested the cannabis policy.

“It is about the effective use of scarce police resources.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,1271,-1610808,00.html

Public back cannabis trial

BBC News

Thursday, 21 March, 2002, 08:11 GMT

The pro-cannabis lobby has grown in recent years

A survey of residents is expected to back the “softly, softly” approach to possession of cannabis in the south London borough of Lambeth.

The experiment, pioneered by controversial Metropolitan Police Commander Brian Paddick, is thought to have saved many hours of police time.

Scotland Yard’s own review will show crime figures in the area have fallen, while arrests for more serious drugs offences have risen.

Commander Paddick was moved from his post in Lambeth earlier this week while accusations about his private life are investigated, but many in the borough believe he should return.

Since July 2001, people caught with cannabis in the borough have been dealt with informally rather than arrested.

People found in possession of small quantities are let off with a formal warning rather than being arrested or cautioned.

And the independent survey of the borough’s residents is expected to show broad-based support for this new approach.

Street robbery

Mayoral policing adviser Lee Jasper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme both reports showed the scheme had worked effectively.

“By-products of relaxation in relation to cannabis [laws] have been proven to lead to crime reduction – certainly in street robbery – and had a huge impact in relation to dealing with class A hard drugs particularly crack cocaine.”

Mr Jasper said the “sensible attitude” had “freed up tremendous police resources”, as well as offering research for a wider debate.

There’s really only one answer and that’s treat it in the same way we treat tobacco

Francis Wilkinson

Ex-chief constable

“The government should be seriously thinking about decriminalising cannabis.”

The scheme is taking place in the context of government signals that it wishes to re-classify cannabis from a class ‘B’ to a class ‘C’ drug.

But Home Secretary David Blunkett has emphasised that although he wants to reclassify cannabis he does not intend to legalise or decriminalise it.

Praise for scheme

Cannabis possession and supply would remain a criminal offence, attracting maximum sentences of five years for supply and two years for possession.

But rather than arresting people caught with cannabis, police will be more likely to issue a warning, a caution or a court summons.

Francis Wilkinson, former chief constable of Gwent and patron of drugs charity Transform, told Today the Lambeth scheme was only “fine as an experiment”.

“It has had a positive local effect, but it’s not a responsible line for national policy.

“A government can’t seriously say we will allow the stuff to be used… but we are still going to target the people who import it.

Reinstatement call

“There’s really only one answer and that’s treat it in the same way we treat tobacco, legalise it root-and-branch.”

Last November, a home office minister praised the relaxed cannabis laws being piloted in Lambeth.

Bob Ainsworth, on a visit to the area, said the introduction of a trial project in the London borough had so far been a success.

Supporters of Commander Paddick are planning to call for his reinstatement at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Lambeth residents who support him are attending a scheduled full meeting of the authority on Thursday where they will be supported by members of the London Assembly Green Group who sit on the authority.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1884000/1884686.stm

He’s our kind of cop

Decca Aitkenhead

Monday March 18, 2002

The Guardian

What are the qualities we would all look for in a senior police officer? The list could go on for ever, but fairly high up it would come determination to keep the public safe. Ingenuity and a willingness to find out what works would probably also feature near the top. A good policeman is seldom thought to be one who hopes that his uniform, combined with the size of his boots, will inspire sufficient respect to do his job for him.

A more imaginative police force isn’t merely the ambition of some liberal minority. The Sun’s white van man can usually be relied on to express the view that police should “live in the real world”, and nothing winds most people up more than an encounter with a pedantic police officer. The letter of the law, when applied to one’s own circumstances, suddenly becomes not so much a sacred principle as a nuisance; the virtues of discretion and common sense, on the other hand, are much admired on such occasions. By almost universal account, what we want are bright officers who can think for themselves. Few these days would disagree – just as few would call for a force that glaringly failed to reflect the population we pay it to police.

So what amazing good fortune for us, you would think, to have a man such as Commander Brian Paddick in the job. Here’s an officer so dedicated to his work, so engaged with the “real world”, that in his free time he offered his most experimental thoughts about policing and anarchy to a website. He introduced a pragmatic pilot scheme regarding cannabis possession, and risked his reputation to tell candid truths about the policing priorities of different drugs. He is openly gay.

And now, we learn, he put his own money where his mouth was. Finding himself in love with a cannabis smoker, Paddick didn’t arrest his boyfriend or kick him out to protect himself. He admits he did what every police officer I have ever known opts to do – which is, very sensibly, nothing. A triumph, then, of the sort of approach we admire.

Apparently not. “Gay supercop drugs and sex shame”, according to yesterday’s Sunday People. The Mail on Sunday called for his resignation. Both papers published a stream of other allegations, made by the painfully embittered ex-boyfriend, ranging from casual sex on the Gatwick Express, to having a puff himself. Paddick denies them all. Apart from the last, most would be irrelevant anyway – and yet the Mail may now be horribly right to think his position has become “untenable”. There is a credible risk that Paddick could lose his job – precisely for personifying the ideal police officer we all claim to want.

If Paddick goes, it will officially be for breaking the law by letting someone smoke cannabis in his home. That, in theory, is the media’s only objection. But the weekend’s headlines all started with the word “gay”, and his “extravagant promiscuity” – not to mention his taste for Clinique – enjoyed just as much attention as any criminal allegations. Like pragmatic policing, homosexuality as an idea may have become acceptable, and homophobia disgraceful as an idea . But what we say in public turns out not to be entirely reliable in real life.

Yesterday’s News of the World was brimming with letters congratulating Pop Idol Will Young – and, by extension, the News of the World – for coming out to the tabloid the previous week. Modern mainstream culture wouldn’t dream of holding it against the lovely young lad. And yet Frank Skinner and David Baddiel (who would consider themselves closer to Ben Elton than Bernard Manning) felt it was fine to snigger and crack strange, puerile jokes on their show last week.

Respectable comedians no longer wish to look homophobic. They couldn’t afford to, even if they thought that’s what they were, and they would be more likely to find the very suggestion absurd. And yet, Skinner wondered aloud whether being gay made Will a hypocrite, and would cause “a problem”. Like, would fans be all right about him singing “I love you girl”, when … well, obviously he didn’t?

If Will got a nasty surprise hearing that, it would be nothing to the shock Gavyn Davies received for stating an innocuous and self-evident opinion that is universally shared. That the BBC is dominated by the interests of the white, middle class and middle aged, etc, is perfectly obvious. Who would disagree? That it should serve all its licence payers is similarly unarguable. But when Gavyn Davies simply said as much, the statement was taken to expose him as a self-loathing, posturing hypocrite.

What all three men did was tell truths we claim to believe in. How curious that they, rather than we, should be the ones charged with hypocrisy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,669261,00.html

Police chief faces music over outburst on website

Nick Hopkins, crime correspondent

Guardian

Wednesday February 20, 2002

The senior police officer in charge of a controversial cannabis initiative found himself at the centre of another furore yesterday over outspoken remarks he is supposed to have made to a website renowned for its coverage of direct action protests.

Commander Brian Paddick, who is in charge of policing in Lambeth, south London, told www.urban75.com that “the concept of anarchism has always appealed to me”.

Using the chatroom name Brian: The Commander, he also implied that certain drugs should be legalised. “What do I really think? We need to take the criminality out of it by legislation and strict control.”

Mr Paddick, whose candour has not always been appreciated by his bosses at Scotland Yard, used forthright language to make his points.

“Bottom line – screw the dealers, help the addicts … I don’t give two hoots about my promotion prospects … do not treat all police officers as lapdogs of a corrupt capitalist system. Dogs sometimes turn on their owners.”

The highest ranking openly gay officer in the Met, Mr Paddick also admitted that “someone has already found out which gay club I go to and is trying to cause serious shit for me.”

Other senior officers at Scotland Yard indicated that a more immediate worry is the reception he will get when he returns from holiday in Australia and is summoned to headquarters.

Although Mr Paddick has not broken any disciplinary codes, some at the Met believe he is “too honest for his own good” and needs to be persuaded that there are occasions when, for the sake of the force, his maverick views are best kept to himself.

It will not be the first time Mr Paddick has been called to Scotland Yard to clarify his position on a sensitive matter. Last November he received unwanted headlines when he appeared to tell a committee of MPs that he was not interested in “weekend” drug users who take small amounts of cocaine and ecstasy.

“If I felt my officers were going into nightclubs looking for people in possession of ecstasy, then I would say to them, and I would say publicly, they are wasting valuable police resources,” he said.

Mr Paddick, 43, inspired the “softly softly” drugs scheme that has been operating in Lambeth since the middle of last year.

Under the initiative, people caught with a small amount of cannabis are cautioned rather than arrested; the pilot has already saved officers thousands of hours of work, but it has been severely criticised by the Police Federation and rightwing critics who believe that it sends the wrong signals to drug users. An independent study of the scheme is expected to be published next month and the Met was hoping that Mr Paddick would keep a low profile until then.

Before leaving for Australia, the borough commander told the Big Issue that he had contributed to the website, but Scotland Yard said it could not comment further until Mr Paddick returned.

“We cannot confirm that Commander Paddick made these remarks,” said a spokesman. “He is on annual leave and there is no way of verifying the alleged comments.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4359455,00.html

Commander Crackpot

The SUN 20th Feb 2002

By MIKE SULLIVAN

Sun Crime Editor

A POLICE chief was branded Britain’s oddest cop last night after saying he finds anarchy “appealing”.

Bobbies were enraged by Commander Brian Paddick’s amazing remark, one of 25 outbursts he made on a website covering protests against capitalism.

A former Flying Squad boss said Paddick — head of the Met in Brixton, South London — was “the strangest police officer I have come across”.

The police chief has admitted most of his colleagues think he is a crackpot.

In one of his bizarre outpourings on the internet, he said: “Most people in the police think I am beyond redemption — ‘let’s get the guys in the white coats to take him away’.”

And last night rank-and-file bobbies were furious after the 43-year-old commander declared: “The concept of anarchism has always appealed to me. The idea of the innate goodness of the individual that is corrupted by society or the system.

“It is a theoretical argument but I am not sure everyone would behave well if there were no laws and no system.”

Paddick, architect of the police’s softly-softly approach to cannabis smokers, revealed his forthright view on the radical website urban75.com.

It is well known for discussions about drugs and direct action protests against capitalism.

The liberal police chief, Britain’s most senior openly gay officer, has made 25 contributions to the site so far this year.

Paddick, head of the Metropolitan Police force in the borough of Lambeth, South London, has also:

LANDED in trouble with bosses after saying he was not interested in chasing people who use small amounts of cocaine and ecstasy.

DECLARED that he does not give a “hoot” about his promotion prospects, and CONFESSED he is “either brave or stupid”.

In another posting on the website, he said: “Do not treat all police officers as lapdogs of a corrupt capitalist system. Dogs sometimes turn on their owners.”

The outspoken cop — whose patch includes Brixton, one of Britain’s toughest areas — used the monicker Brian: The Commander.

His presence on the site initially caused disbelief among other contributors using names like Panda Killer and Slowdog.

Paddick says he is trying to broaden his understanding by exchanging views with people who have differing views on policing. But his outburst on anarchy dismayed ordinary bobbies.

Paddick … angered cops

Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: “Commander Paddick is a very senior officer in a high profile position — and he should be more careful about what he says.

“It is quite bizarre that a police commander should say he finds anarchy attractive.

“It is a kind of language you would expect from a hard Left Leninist. If one of our members said something similar in public there would be repercussions.

“I just wonder whether he can carry on doing his job like this.” Ex-Flying Squad chief John O’Connor accused Paddick of “undermining law and order” and bringing the force into disrepute.

He said: “Brian Paddick must be the oddest police officer I have ever come across. “He has to run one of the most difficult areas in the country.

“How can politicians talk about zero tolerance and hardline policing while this man is making statements like this.”

Oxford graduate Paddick is currently on holiday in Australia with his male partner, a Gucci shop manager.

He will be quizzed by top brass on his return but is unlikely to be sacked.

A senior source said: “If the remarks he made on the net are his personal views no disciplinary action will be taken against him.

“He enjoys the confidence of the Commissioner and is perceived to have done a good job in establishing confidence of his local community.”

But there is a feeling among many officers that Paddick has become an embarrassment who is living on borrowed time.

Another source said: “Brian is a brilliant policeman and nobody could question his commitment to the job. But he has a habit of putting his foot in it and his views are too radical for most officers to stomach.”

Paddick took over in Lambeth 13 months ago. He hit the headlines last July when he ordered his officers to just issue warnings to people caught with cannabis instead of arresting them.

He took the decision without clearing it with boss Sir John Stevens. Home Secretary David Blunkett took note and demanded frequent updates on the experiment.

In six months, the softly-softly approach is said to have saved 2,500 man hours and £4million in court costs by not prosecuting 400 people caught with the drug.

But arrests for possession of harder drugs rose by 19 per cent.

As a result, the Government is downgrading cannabis from Class B to Class C from May.

Critics, however, claim the policy has led to an influx of youngsters eager for easy dope. And last week the scheme was blasted by visiting ex-New York mayor Sir Rudy Giuliani, whose zero tolerance helped clean up his city.

Paddick went a step too far in November by telling a committee of MPs he was not in favour of collaring those who use small amounts of cocaine and ecstasy.

He was hauled up by top brass and Sir John Stevens dissociated the force from his remarks.

Soft laws and crime is soaring

Streets of fear … law-abiding locals are afraid to venture out at night in crime-plagued Brixton

COMMANDER Paddick is testing his softly-softly cannabis policy in Brixton — dubbed London’s drugs capital with a terrifying reputation for crime.

Many locals are now too scared to go out at night. They say crime has soared since the policy brought in last July attracted more drug users to the area.

The run-down part of Lambeth borough is plagued by mugging, burglary and car crime.

Drug dealers openly sell heroin and crack cocaine on busy streets. Youths smoke pot knowing they are unlikely to face even a caution.

Street robberies in Lambeth rose 46 per cent to 4,691 last year and a robbery was committed every 73 minutes in December. Drug-related crime rose by 25 per cent.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002081357,00.html

Anarchism ‘appeals’ to police chief

BBC News Tuesday, 19 February, 2002, 10:40 GMT

The police chief who spearheaded the “softly, softly” cannabis scheme in London has courted further controversy by posting his views on drugs on a website.

Brian Paddick, the Metropolitan Police’s Lambeth commander, says the theory of anarchism is appealing.

On the site Commander Paddick discusses the cannabis project in London, and elaborates on his views on drugs.

In a discussion about drugs he says: “…we need to take the criminality out of it by legalisation and strict control.

Most people in the police think I am a beyond redemption ‘let’s get the guys in white coats to take him away’ rebel

Brian Paddick

“We need to educate people as to the effects drugs will have on them short term/long term and allow those old enough to make their own decision about what they do to their bodies.

“The bottom line is, screw the dealers, help the addicts.”

In another posting he says: “The concept of anarchism has always appealed to me.

“The idea of the innate goodness of the individual that is corrupted by society or the system.

Police appointments

“It is a theoretical argument but I am not sure everyone would behave well if there were no laws and no system.”

So far this year the www.urban75.com site, features at least 25 “frank” contributions from the police officer.

Cannabis users are cautioned in Lambeth

Commander Paddick, 43, the UK’s highest-ranking openly gay officer, describes his interests as “police, gay issues, drugs”.

His appearance under the Internet moniker “Brian: The Commander” initially caused disbelief among other contributors, some with names like “panda killer” and “slowdog”.

But Commander Paddick, currently on leave, confirmed in an interview in this week’s Big Issue magazine, he is the contributor.

In one entry he offers chat room members the opportunity for one-to-one appointments at the police station.

The maverick commander explains his presence on the website as a way of broadening his own understanding by speaking to people with differing views on policing.

He told the Big Issue he became aware of the site when it was brought to his attention that racist comments had been posted there by one of his own officers.

Giuliani’s criticisms

One posting by Commander Paddick said: “Most people in the police think I am a beyond redemption ‘let’s get the guys in white coats to take him away’ rebel.”

Since the relaxing of police attitudes to cannabis under Commander Paddick in Lambeth, hundreds of people in possession of small amounts of the drug have not been prosecuted, saving thousands of hours of police time.

Anyone caught with small amounts of cannabis in the area is now dealt with by a caution rather than by being prosecuted.

But critics claim the scheme has led to an influx of cannabis users into the area and a growth in hard drugs.

Last week the scheme was criticised by crime-busting former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who said anyone in possession of cannabis should be arrested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1828000/1828795.stm

Yard chief: Anarchy is attractive

Evening Standard 19 feb 2002

by Humfry Hunter and Adam Blenford

A top London police officer today publicly admitted that he finds anarchy attractive.

The comments by Commander Brian Paddick – who, as commander of the Met’s Lambeth division, introduced the “softly softly” approach to cannabis users in Brixton last year – appear on a radical website. Using the screen name “Brian: The Commander”, he also calls for cannabis to be legalised and admits that his views will probably cause him problems with his superiors.

On the site, he writes: “The concept of Anarchism has always appealed to me. The idea of the innate goodness of the individual that is corrupted by society or the system. It is a theoretical argument but I am not sure everyone would behave well if there were no laws and no system.”

He was contributing to the website www.urban75.com, renowned for its coverage of direct-action protests, drugs and anarchism. It has 4,000 members and is visited a million times a month.

Mr Paddick says: “Do not treat all police officers as lapdogs of a corrupt capitalist system. Dogs sometimes turn on their owners.”

On drugs, he says: “What do I really think… we need to take the criminality out of it by legalisation and strict control. We need to educate people as to the effects drugs will have on them short term/long term and allow those old enough to make their own decisions about what they do to their bodies,” adding “Bottom line – screw the dealers, help the addicts.”

He continues: “I cannot stand around waiting for others to come to their senses whilst people’s lives are destroyed through drugs. I am doing what I think is right in the current circumstances even if I think I would do something different if the law was different. This is not a cop out and I have engaged in the philosophical/ hypothetical debate here and in Parliament. BUT WHAT DO I DO IN MY CURRENT POSITION NOW? HELP ME!!”

He admits to contributing to the website in an interview with the magazine The Big Issue, but insists his views are personal ones. In it, he says: “Clearly we are not getting it right in terms of dealing with the problems of dealing in Class A drugs in Brixton. What the boards have enabled me to do is get a feel for what people think from their perspective versus what I know.”

Mr Paddick, who is Britain’s highest ranking openly gay officer, also makes it clear he is taking a risk simply by discussing the issues in a public forum. He writes: “I have to be careful. Expressing my views here could end up in the press or on my bosses’ desks.”

He continues: “Of course the beauty of the internet is that no one can prove who you are. First newspaper article based on these boards and I’m out of here.

“I do not give two hoots about my promotion prospects but I do care about keeping my job here in Brixton. One step too far and I might be counting paper clips in the Personnel Department. Most people in the police think I am beyond redemption, ‘let’s get the guys in the white coats to take him away’.”

Mr Paddick adds: “Someone has already found out which gay club I go to and is trying to cause SERIOUS shit for me. It’s nice to be popular!! I have been described as politically naive. If this means I say what’s in my heart, I’m happy to be labelled as such. I’m either brave or stupid.”

The website’s Brixton-based editor Mike Slocombe said: “Brian is to be commended for having the bottle to do it.” Mr Paddick introthe “softly softly” pilot drugs project in Lambeth last July, whereby anyone caught with small amounts of cannabis escapes with a caution instead of arrest and prosecution.

Since the launch in Brixton, hundreds of people in possession of small amounts of the drug have not been prosecuted, saving thousands of hours of police time.

But critics claim the scheme has lead to an influx of cannabis users into the area and a growth in hard drugs. Last week former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani criticised the scheme, saying anyducedone caught with cannabis should be arrested.

Mr Paddick is on leave, but admits that his bosses knew nothing about his contributions to the website, which could prove a huge embarrassment to the Yard and may well raise questions about his future prospects with the Met.

http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/news/top_story.html?in_review_id=500613

‘No cannabis cafes for UK’

Friday, 2nd November 2001 @ 12:00:04 MST

Source: BBC

Cannabis cafes increase drugs use, says government

The government’s decision to ease the laws on possession of cannabis will not lead to cafes selling the drug in the UK, a senior Home Office official has insisted.

Home Office director of drug strategy Sue Killen was pressed repeatedly on the issue by MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

The questioning comes in the wake of Home Secretary David Blunkett’s statement that he wants to ease the UK’s drugs laws so cannabis possession will no longer be an arrestable offence.

Ex-drugs tsar Keith Hellawell was another key expert who gave evidence to the committee, arguing he had neither real power nor real support in his previous post.

Policy shift’s implications

The implications of what was seen as a major shift in the government’s stance on drugs were the focus of much of the first session of the committee’s inquiry into drugs policy.

Ms Killen stressed that supplying cannabis will remain illegal because the evidence suggested that allowing commercial sales increased the amount of users.

“We are not talking about decriminalisation in any way, shape or form. All the sanctions will remain criminal.

“Within the civil system, it tends to be quite rigid, whereas within the criminal justice system, there is some discretion that remains.”

Committee chairman Chris Mullin suggested Home Office officials were “in denial” over what the public were really discussing.

He told Ms Killen: “There’s a huge debate raging in the outside world about whether decriminalisation is or is not a good thing.”

Radical options

And Conservative MP David Cameron said it was be disappointing if the radical options were not at least examined.

Ms Killen told the committee: “To my knowledge, we haven’t sat down and done a major study on decriminalisation of all drugs, including Class A.”

Another Home Office drugs unit official, Vic Hogg, said successive governments had seen the harm caused by drugs as “extremely serious”.

The UK was signed up to conventions that said drugs supply and production should be a criminal offence, he added.

But Mr Mullin asked the officials to return to the committee by next Thursday with a set of arguments to rebut such ideas as decriminalising drugs.

He continued: “If no-one will address these issues from among our official witnesses, how are we to proceed?”

‘No decriminalisation’

Former drugs tsar Mr Hellawell said in his evidence that he had yet to meet a heroin user who had not started on cannabis, although the same was true of normal cigarettes.

Rebutting media reports earlier this year, he continued: “I have never said that I do not believe cannabis to be a gateway drug. I do not know where this story has come from.”

The committee did not ask Mr Hellawell if he agreed with the decision to reclassify cannabis from a Class ‘B’ to a Class ‘C’ drug.

‘No sideliniining’

Mr Hellawell has now been moved to become the government’s expert adviser on drugs policy.

He denied reports that he had been sidelined by Mr Blunkett, claiming he had neither real power nor real support in his previous post.

Mr Hellawell revealed his dislike for the title “tsar”.

“It did not reflect in any way the job that I had or the powers or responsibility that I did not have,” he said.

“If, as has portrayed, I was there to change the world single-handedly then clearly my critics would say I failed to do that.””

Offbeat copper

Tuesday August 28, 2001

The Guardian

Brian Paddick is on the front line in the war against guns and drugs. But he has a more personal battle to fight – being gay in a macho police force. Nick Hopkins meets him

Special report: policing crime

Brian Paddick was livid. He’d interviewed the people on the shortlist, carefully assessed their weaknesses and strengths, and chosen the best person for the job. He thought he’d been scrupulously fair, but one of the disappointed candidates had immediately written a letter of complaint, suggesting that Paddick had snubbed her because she is a woman and he is – wait for it – gay.

She was right about his sexuality, but Paddick couldn’t believe she’d thought that this played any part in his decision. He told a colleague, who is also gay, expecting he would share his indignation. Instead, the older man roared: “Brian, we’ve arrived! When the straights are lining up against us, you know we’ve arrived!”And so he has.

Paddick, 43, is the borough commander for Lambeth, south London. In his stuffy office on the second floor of Brixton police station, he’s in a jolly mood, chatting about a holiday to Ibiza and the extraordinary nightclubs he visited. Back here in Brixton, he is six months into a campaign to tackle the country’s most dangerous Yardie drug dealers, a task that must be undertaken without upsetting the delicate relationship between the Met and the local black community. By common consent, it’s one of the most difficult jobs in British policing.

Phase one of his grand plan sparked a national debate: he told his officers to issue warnings to people caught in possession of cannabis, rather than arresting them, a softly-softly approach that may be the catalyst for a change in the law. It was a bold move, especially as he hadn’t cleared it with his boss, Scotland Yard’s commissioner Sir John Stevens.

Paddick says his attitude towards the drug is pragmatic rather than liberal, and sidesteps questions about legalisation. He tells the tale of two nightclubs on his patch. One has a reputation for drug-taking. “I don’t have any trouble inside or outside that club, no problems with disorder at all.”

Punters at the other venue pay a flat-rate entrance fee and get free alcohol all night. “I get fights and brawls every weekend.

“I have never known anyone commit crime to fund a cannabis habit… and you never have cases of people being stoned and disorderly.”

Cannabis is the least of his worries. Yardie gangsters, having fled Jamaica, have begun fighting each other in Lambeth, a place regarded as the black capital of Britain. When they are not fighting each other, they are fighting the home-grown drug dealers. And when they are not fighting the locals, they are shooting members of the public who get in their way and police officers who try to arrest them.

Recently, there was a minor car crash in Streatham. One of the drivers, a man, wanted to pay for the damage in cash – the other insisted they should swap insurance details. The former pulled out a gun and fired at the latter – a pregnant woman. She survived, but she was lucky.

This kind of “respect” shooting is increasingly common in Lambeth. Paddick says the gun is considered a compulsory fashion accessory by a certain type of aspiring villain, not just the Yardies. His officers often raid homes and find framed photographs of men posing with their favourite shotguns and revolvers on the mantlepiece.

There are, however, more personal battles to fight. Paddick doesn’t make an issue of the fact that he is gay – he is the highest ranking officer to have “come out” – but others have. These “others” are the sort of people who write anonymous letters to Stevens claiming that Paddick is corrupt, and spread stories about his private life that have proved laughably incorrect. Nevertheless they are still hurtful.

One slur doing the rounds is that Paddick’s partner works for the secret service, and that their relationship is a threat to national security. “In fact, he’s a floor manager of a Gucci store.” Another suggests he recently abandoned his wife, breaking her heart. “Actually, we split up 13 years ago by mutual consent.”

The Met, he says, has made great strides in tackling racism and sexism within the ranks, but is still “a mile behind” in its attempts to address homophobia.

Paddick doesn’t see himself as a role model, but wants junior gay officers to know there is someone near the top of the tree looking out for them. “To begin with, I remember being absolutely terrified that someone would find out. For the first 10 years of my career, I did whatever I could to put people off the scent.” Word got out when he decided to live with his partner. Under police rules, he had to inform a senior officer, who took him to one side and warned that it was inevitable that “people will start talking”. Snide and sly remarks made behind his back became the norm in the staff canteen, even though only one officer in the station had been told he was gay.

When Paddick was moved from south London to Notting Hill, he told his commanding officer that he was gay, but said it was not common knowledge, and asked him to be discreet. He wasn’t. “There was a quiz night at a local pub and I was on a team of senior police managers. One question to our team was: ‘Who is the local MP?’ My boss replied: ‘Oh, he’s that poof.’ Then he reached across the table, grabbed my arm and said: ‘I didn’t mean to offend you, Brian.’ ” When Paddick threatened to make an official complaint, he was moved to another area against his will.

During a posting at New Scotland Yard, Paddick was given another taste of homophobia, this time served by one of the force’s most senior officers. Paddick says he was reading a police magazine, which had caused a furore the previous week by publishing an article that called for gay men and women to be banned from policing.

In the next issue, there were several letters complaining about the story, to the evident astonishment of Paddick’s boss. “When he saw what I was reading, he said: ‘They’re out there Brian, they’re out there!’ I should have replied: ‘And they’re in here as well.’ ”

The decision to “‘come out” was taken earlier this year and was backed by Stevens, who has promised to support him in any skirmishes with homophobes inside and outside the Met.

A series of allegations have been made against Paddick, including a serious accusation of corruption, which was timed to scupper his chances of promotion. An emergency inquiry was launched, which quickly vindicated him, but the promotion panel had to be told that an investigation had been conducted. It was a wearying and worrying time for him, and there is always the fear that mud sticks.

Paddick is resigned to the idea that the higher he rises the more he will become a target. He says that to a certain extent this makes him feel vulnerable. But despite all this, he is not disillusioned or deterred from seeking higher office. Oddly, the force is where he feels safest. “I was bullied at school by boys who suspected I was gay. I always wanted to be part of an organisation that protects people. That’s what we do here. It’s what drives me.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,543265,00.html

Police point the way on drugs debate – Special report: drugs in Britain

Leader

Sunday June 17, 2001

The Observer

In the London policing area of Lambeth, Commander Brian Paddick is pioneering a scheme which might help address the pervasive problem of drugs supply. Those found in possession of cannabis for personal use will have it confiscated by the police and will be warned but not prosecuted.

As long as the drugs are destroyed, as the police promise, and not merely recycled, this could be a first substantive step in undermining Britain’s massive drugs economy. People will not want to buy drugs in Lambeth and its ‘town centre’, Brixton, because they are likely to lose them.

However, they will not be criminalised and hours of police time spent in processing minor offenders will be saved. If Mr Paddick, tipped as a future Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is successful, his scheme could lead to pressure for change throughout Britain.

It is truly refreshing to find senior police officers moving one step ahead of our sclerotic political process rather than their customary two paces behind. But if Mr Paddick’s approach appears courageous, it is partly a reflection of the pusillanimity of British politicians about drugs.

A year after Dame Ruth Runciman’s lengthy inquiry into our drugs laws, some of its key recommendations – particularly that cannabis be reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug, thus meriting the treatment it will now receive in Lambeth – have been ignored.

In the meantime, Britain still has a huge drugs underworld. Most efforts to control it are focused on legions of small-time users of cannabis rather than the criminal gangs behind the distribution of highly dangerous substances such as heroin and crack cocaine.

We now have a golden opportunity to debate drugs in a mature way. There are at least four years to go until the next general election. The Conservatives, many of whom are always willing to make cheap political capital out of the issue, are currently hamstrung.

And in David Blunkett, we have a new Home Secretary of avowedly illiberal instincts on social issues such as single mothers and gay relationships. It may be that he is able to look more easily at Britain’s drugs problem and persuade sceptical middle Britain to take some first steps out of the morass.

Sadly, it is all too likely that politicians will resist the opportunity to address the drugs issue seriously. If they do, they will have no one to blame but themselves for a continuance of the pitiful disconnection from the political process that young people demonstrated so powerfully by staying at home in their millions on polling day.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,508288,00.html

This is the thread , that started it all

Commander Brian Paddick of Lambeth Sub-Division of the metropolitan Police, contributed to Mike Slocombes message board, on his site Urban75

See the thread, starting at :

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=217ed38b0361a07ca4b44c52bda5a083&threadid=362

What did you do in the EC0-war daddy?

Did you stand up, did you speak up enough?

Was it your voice that shouted?

Were you there when it counted?

Where were you when the tide turned?

Did you act with honour?

Did you think about the future?

Did you know that one day

………………. I’ll be standing there with you?”