Police commissioner says drugs as good as decriminalised

Drugs offences have been as good as decriminalised North Wales’ Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones has said.
Mr Jones told the Local Democracy Service that many forces in the England and Wales were no longer choosing to prosecute for possession of drugs and this amounted to a de-facto decriminalisation of the problem.
The former police inspector is well known for advocating a different approach to the war and drugs saying the fight has been lost and people caught in possession of illegal drugs should not be treated like criminals.
He was speaking ahead of a launch of North Wales Police’s Checkpoint scheme.
This project will see drug offenders offered a chance to avoid prosecution if they agree to help with their rehabilitation.
To help them they will be supervised by a mentor, with the scheme already rolled out in other force areas.
Mr Jones  said: “All drugs can be decriminalised now, decriminalisation is all about the way you deal with certain things. They way they deal with in Portugal is they treat drug possession as a health issue.

“In England and Wales what we’re going to be doing is diverting people away from criminal justice into other programmes like Checkpoint, Like they’re doing in Durham and Avon and Somerset, Thames Valley, there’ s a whole host of other forces diverting people away from the criminal justice system. And that is in effect decriminalisation, the Home Office wouldn’t want you to use those words they would prefer to call it diversion or out of court disposal. Whatever you call it it’s the same thing. It’s already happening.”

He added: “It’s a matter for the police service how they deal with a particular offence, if someone is in possession of cannabis you don’t have to take them to court, you don’t have to caution them. You can divert them by giving them education on the dangers of taking drugs.”

But Clwyd West AM, Darren Millar, is strongly opposed to Mr Jones’ stance on drugs.
He said: “While I have every sympathy with those who fall prey to drug addiction and believe that we should invest in services to support them and wean them away from substance misuse, many in North Wales find it galling that we have a Police Commissioner who is actively campaigning for dangerous and addictive substances which destroy lives, families and relationships to be decriminalised.
“Our Police Commissioner should be helping the police to enforce the law, not encouraging people to break it.”
The Home Office has been asked to comment.

By Shane Brennan – Local Democracy Reporter