Why Drug Law Needs Reform: A Prime Example

Judge’s anger over casual attitude to cannabis:

Judge Christopher Cornwall made comments [about the danger of cannabis use] while sentencing a Fylde coast man caught with 30g of the drug at his home. Paul Hadgraft was described as a regular cannabis user who believed the drug had a calming effect.

Michael Murray, defending, told the court: “It is dawning on him that cannabis is not as innocent as a lot of people would suspect. He says it is his wish to rid himself of what is clearly an addiction to cannabis. … He wasn’t making any money for recreational use, other than buying more cannabis to use himself and to pass on to friends.

Hadgraft was given a sentence of 26 weeks prison, suspended for 18 months, with 18 months supervision.

Here is yet another example of why drug use should be treated as a public health rather than criminal law issue. This man has been sentenced to 26 weeks in prison for owning an ounce of cannbis and selling not-for-profit to fund his own habit. Spending time in prison is not a productive way to get him sorted out if he is, indeed, an addict. The article mentions that he has had some number of previous offences on his record, which I would assume were drug-related.

In the prison system we can expect him to find it fairly easy to get hold of drugs anyway, in which case he’s most likely to come out of it having wasted about £19k of government money in the prison system alone (plus the costs of police tracking this man down, defence lawyer possibly on government-funded legal aid, and the cost of the trial), which could be spent in a whole bunch of better ways, including rehab, and tracking down people whose chief intention is actually to harm or profiteer from crime.

In addition, any job this man had he will lose; if he had a mortgage, he is in danger of repossession; if he applies for jobs in the future he has a record of jail time. Given that he already has some number of offences on his record, he may well be on state benefit, and if he isn’t, it is more than likely that when he gets out of prison he will be. He will probably remain on it indefinitely.

This man’s case is fairly typical. The government’s drug policy means that this case will continue being fairly typical; it wastes money, time, and lives. If cannabis was decriminalised and regulated, this man would not have any incentive to deal; the police would not have to spend time rooting him out and arresting him; and he would not be wasting thousands of pounds of government money merely by desiring to smoke a omnipresent weed. If he had an addiction problem, he could seek help for it without fear, and if he didn’t, he would be far more able to find jobs and function in society.

The current drug policy is a failure. It must change.