editorial comment Less arrests mean a failure??? Wel, it does fit government's pattern. After all, more deaths in Iraq are an indication of success....

The number of hard drug dealers arrested in London over the last four years has plummeted by nearly 20 per cent, despite assurances from senior police officers and government ministers that they would make the fight against heroin and cocaine a priority.

Figures released to the London Assembly by the Metropolitan Police show that 2,384 people were arrested for supplying drugs in the capital in 2001. By last year the figure had fallen to 1,932 - a drop of 452, or 19 per cent.

The findings will raise further questions over the Home Office decision to downgrade the classification of cannabis, which was intended to give police more time to focus on hard drugs. Despite reclassification in January 2004, drug arrests continued to fall last year, with 122 fewer dealers arrested in London than in 2003.

The latest British Crime Survey showed that one in 20 Londoners had taken hard drugs in the last year, the highest figure for the whole country. At the same time, the price of cocaine and heroin has been falling.

Liberal Democrat policing spokesman Graham Tope said: 'These figures are deeply worrying. Serious questions must be asked why it is that hard drug use in London continues to rise, yet the number of drug dealers caught continues to fall so dramatically.'

He added: 'When cannabis was downgraded by the Home Office, ministers promised that the extra time officers would have would mean that they could tackle hard drug dealers. This is clearly not happening.'

Scotland Yard estimated that the reclassification of cannabis saved them 14,620 hours that would have been spent processing arrests of small-time users. But this has not translated into arrests of class A dealers.

Four years ago Lambeth borough commander Brian Paddick sparked a national debate when he ordered his officers to stop arresting people for possession of small amounts of cannabis and concentrate on hard drug dealers. But the newly published figures show that arrests of cocaine or heroin dealers in the south London borough have nearly halved, from 186 in 2001 to 101 last year. The figures vary dramatically across the capital, sparking fears that there was no consistent policy on hard drugs.

The police said the figures were a result of concentrating on big dealers rather than minor street sellers. But that does not explain why in some parts of the capital - such as Hackney in east London and Ealing in west London - arrests have gone up. This would suggest very different approaches by police in different parts of the city.

The statistics will worry the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, who said he would make the fight against hard drug use one of his key priorities when he took over the job in February.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said that the police were now concentrating on 'higher-tier dealers' by working closely with the National Crime Squad and Revenue & Customs to target more serious offenders.

'While there may be a reduction in the number of arrests, actual seizures of class A drugs have increased,' she added. In one seizure in October last year, 75 kilos of cocaine were intercepted with a street value of about £12 million.

A spokeswoman for drug campaigners Drugscope supported the police: 'It is not the number but the quality of arrests that matters. Low- level dealers tend to be replaced very quickly. It makes more sense to tackle big dealers: it has more impact and is a better use of their time.'

· The debate on cannabis will be intensified by tonight's BBC Panorama programme, which will examine the growing evidence of links between the drug and psychotic illness in young people. 'Cannabis: What Teenagers Should Know' includes new research about the long-term damage caused by cannabis use and evidence that it can act as a 'gateway' to other drugs.

In March, mental health charities welcomed the decision by the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, to order a review of the evidence of the links between psychosis and cannabis use. Some recent research from New Zealand found that smoking cannabis seriously increased the risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

back | to top | full article >>