Decriminalise cannabis, says police chief...

Tim Hollis, chief constable of Humberside police, said the criminal justice system could offer only a "limited" solution to the UK's drug problem, a tacit admission that prohibition has failed.

Hollis's dramatic intervention comes as the government is reviewing its 10-year drug strategy amid growing warnings from experts that prohibition does not deter drug use and that decriminalisation would liberate precious police resources and cut crime.

Hollis, chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers' drugs committee, said he did not want to criminalise young people caught with minor amounts of substances such as cannabis. A criminal record that could ruin their career before it began was disproportionate, he said. More...

Don't miss:

1. The marijuana conspiracy: why hemp is illegal...
2. A marijuana history lesson...
3. 'Cannabis gave me my life back'
4. Cannabis eased my autistic son's pain...
5. The war on drugs is immoral idiocy...