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Source - http://www.dailymail...o=feeds-newsxml An open door to drug smugglers: Air travellers carrying cannabis let off with slap on wrist By JACK DOYLE PUBLISHED: 22:48, 14 May 2012 | UPDATED: 07:20, 15 May 2012 Passengers caught with small amount of drug are escaping with a warning Critics fear smugglers will flock to Britain, without fear of prosecution Air passengers caught entering Britain with cannabis in their luggage are being let off with just a ‘slap on the wrist’. Customs staff were found to have handed out nothing more than a warning to passengers arriving at Britain’s second biggest airport. Home Office officials insist that anyone caught with the illegal Class B drug in their luggage should be arrested on the spot. They can face a jail term of up to 14 years. But inspectors found that at Gatwick, where small amounts of cannabis were discovered, passengers were not even detained by officials. Instead they were given an oral warning, had the drug confiscated and then were allowed to continue their journey. The revelations have prompted fears that cannabis laws are being widely ignored across Britain’s airports, leading to a virtual ‘open door’ situation for drug smugglers who know they have every chance of escaping any punishment even if caught. Details of the practice at Gatwick emerged in a report by the chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, John Vine. Airport records for April and May 2011 showed that a total of four passengers were found with small quantities of cannabis after luggage searches at Gatwick North Terminal. Under the rules, they should have been arrested and their case passed to an investigation team. But instead, inspectors said, all four ‘were allowed to proceed with a warning’. Inspectors are allowed to let low-level drugs offenders pay a fine known as a compound settlement, but this must be done with the approval of a senior officer. In none of the four cases was the passenger even given a financial penalty. The passengers’ personal details were recorded on an internal UK Border Agency computer system, but were not passed to the police or placed on the Police National Computer. In effect, they have nothing against their name unless they commit the same crime again. One former Customs officer said: ‘The police are now giving out warnings for bringing in cannabis... It would not surprise me in the least if this was more widespread.’ Last night Mary Brett, of campaign group Europe Against Drugs, said: ‘This is ridiculous. It sends the message, “Bring your cannabis here to Britain and if we catch you it doesn’t matterâ€. ‘This is simply an extension of the police’s lax attitude on the streets towards cannabis into the airport. They do not consider it a crime and they are happy to turn a blind eye. ‘Those who are caught should be dealt with properly and arrested. ‘If the authorities did prosecute a few it would send a message that we take cannabis seriously, which we obviously do not at the moment.’ Garry Cullen, assistant chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, said that what the inspectors found was ‘worrying’ and officials were acting outside the law. ‘Clearly we were concerned with what we found,’ he said. ‘They should comply with the rules that are set out and they did not.' Under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act the maximum penalty for bringing a class B drug such as cannabis into Britain is 14 years in jail and an unlimited fine. But in practice, penalties for cannabis possession on Britain’s streets have been steadily eroded in recent years. The drug was downgraded to Class C by the then Home Secretary, Labour’s David Blunkett, in 2004. Since then, users have no longer faced automatic arrest. Instead, police give a formal warning for cannabis possession on the street. Even after it was restored to Class B in 2008 police were allowed to give out cannabis warnings, which were handed to nearly 19,000 offenders in 2010 and do not go on offenders’ formal record. Experts warned that ignoring penalties would encourage more people to bring in drugs. Criminologist Dr David Green, director of the Civitas think tank, said: ‘If you allow it to be known that the law is not enforced, people will break it more frequently. ‘Word will spread that you can get cannabis in at Gatwick and more people will try to bring it in.’ The report said staff had been moved away from Customs checks to staff immigration controls. Lucy Moreton, deputy general secretary of the Immigration Services Union, said: ‘I can’t say I’m surprised. Like everything, the customs side of the operation is limited and there’s a lot of pressure to put people on to immigration checks. ‘Given the pressure on staff I can understand if the view was to confiscate the drugs and let the individual go.’ A Border Force spokesman said: ‘Our message is clear: Importing cannabis is illegal and our officers will seize it and other illegal drugs if smugglers try to bring it into the UK. ‘In recent weeks we have seized 100 kilos [220lb] of cannabis alone, and we are continuing to tackle the drug trade and prosecute smugglers.’

Wednesday 16 May 2012 Revealed: Government helpline tells children 'cannabis is safer than alcohol' Children calling the Government's drugs helpline are being told that cannabis is safer than alcohol and that ecstasy will not damage their health, an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has found. Advisers manning the “Frank†anti-drug helpline are telling children cannabis is safer than alcohol By Julie Henry, David Barrett and Alex Ralph 9:00PM BST 18 Apr 2009 Advisers manning the “Frank†helpline are informing callers they believed to be children as young as 13 that alcohol is a “much more powerful drug than cannabis†and that using the illegal drug recreationally is not harmful because it “doesn’t get you that highâ€. Callers are also being told that taking ecstasy will not lead to long-term damage and that if they are in doubt, to “just take half a pill and if you are handling that OK, you can take the other half.†They are even being told that they would be able to smoke a cannabis joint, on top of ecstasy, with no ill-effects. The advice, given to reporters who rang the helpline posing as young people, has alarmed anti-drugs campaigners who branded it “scandalous†and “irresponsible.†Health experts have condemned the advice given to children as “frankly appallingâ€, “factually incorrect†and “worryingly cavalierâ€. After being presented with the findings, the Government last night said it had launched an immediate investigation into the Frank service, which is funded by three separate departments, and said it would be taking action advisers involved. Chris Grayling, the shadow Home Secretary, said: “The idea that the Government’s helpline should be saying to young people “go for it†and that cannabis should be class C when it has just been classified by the Government as class B, shows that the Home Office is all over the place in its approach to drugs.†Professor Neil McKeganey, professor of drug misuse research, at Glasgow University, said: “Having read one of the transcripts, it is extraordinary that the Frank councillor seems more concerned to place cannabis smoking in some kind of comfort zone of acceptable behaviour rather than address the risks of such drug use on the part of a 13-year-old child.†Mary Brett, a spokesman for the Talking About Cannabis charity, said: “It is scandalous. These people are talking to kids, for goodness sake. Taking drugs can trigger all kinds of psychosis in people that have a genetic predisposition to it. Why are they not told that? Medical experts have said time and again that skunk, the newer type of cannabis that many young people are taking, is dangerous. “These children are being told they can choose. But the risky bit of their brains develops before the inhibitory bit of their brain and they take risks. “They have to be told 'this is not for you’. When they hear fair, reasoned arguments against, they respond. It is obvious they are not hearing them from Frank.†The helpline, established by the Government in 2003 with £3 million funding, was described in a Home Office drugs strategy recently as “the key channel by which Government communicates the dangers of drugs, including cannabis, to young peopleâ€. But in calls to its helpline, manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, reporters posing as teenagers were told by different advisers that drug taking was not harmful. At no point in the conversations did the Frank team try to dissuade the callers from taking drugs. The effects on the body were played down to the extent that one adviser, referring to ecstasy, said: “At the end of the day I know where you’re coming from – doing a pill and it felt great.†Another councillor said that cannabis, a class B drug, should be regarded as class C and that “cannabis doesn’t really get you that high. You know you are always in controlâ€. A third adviser stated: “nicotine is physically addictive. Cannabis isn’t. You can stop smoking it any time you want.†Alcohol was presented as a much greater danger than illegal drugs, including heroin, more expensive and with many more negative effects. One adviser told a caller: “The withdrawals of alcohol are worse than heroin for example; people can die when they become addicted to alcohol and stop suddenly.†The reporters were also told that the police “would not do anything†if they found a young person with cannabis and that if they are caught with pills, they should say they were for their own use to avoid being prosecuted as a dealer. In one call, where the reporter claimed to be the friend of a 13-year-old boy who had started smoking cannabis, the adviser said: “He won’t get addicted, no. Tell him you spoke to Frank and they told me it’s not as dangerous as alcohol. Tell him they said by using it recreationally, it’s not as bad as alcohol, because that’s the truth in terms of the power of the drug.†He went on to say that if alcohol was illegal, it would be a class A drug, the most harmful category, whereas “cannabis should just be a class C drugâ€. Another reporter, posing as a 15-year-old girl who had taken her first ecstasy tablet, asked if it would affect her health in any way. The response was “Nahâ€. He told the caller that he could not say “go and take Es, you’re absolutely fineâ€, but that “in terms of taking a pill like that, it’s not going to affect your healthâ€. He went on to say “obviously you had a really good experience. It’s like most things, if you do it in moderation, you lessen your chances. “A good idea is if you don’t know what it is you are taking, take a half a one and see how you go and if you are handling that OK, you can take the other half.†The adviser was also unsure what classification the Class A drug was. During a discussion where the adviser talked about mixing drugs, the reporter asked if it was safe to have cannabis after taking an ecstasy pill. The adviser said: “Again, I’m not condoning it but it wouldn’t spin you out like another pill or powder. If you’re asking me if you could have a spliff with it, would it have any major affects, generally speaking, no, although people are individuals so what works for one might not work for another, but generally speaking, no, you’d be able to have spliff with it.†An estimated five million people in the UK are users of illegal or street drugs. Health experts are growing increasingly worried about the affects on young people’s mental health. There is also growing evidence that contrary to earlier assumptions, cannabis can be addictive. Varieties of skunk, which contain much higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active chemical, are more dangerous than the cannabis used in the 1960s and 1970s but are now widespread and often the choice of young people. Dr Zerrin Atakan, consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, said: “Any drug use while the brain is still developing may lead to structural or functional changes. One Australian study has shown that heavy cannabis users show clear structural abnormalities of the brain. “Another recent study has also shown that cannabis use before 18 can lead to abnormalities in areas of the brain that control memory, attention, decision-making and language skills. “Also, contrary to previously held beliefs, it is now considered that regular users can develop 'tolerance’ to the drug, one of the main characteristics of addiction. Regular users require higher doses to become 'stoned’. Some people find it very hard to give it up and become highly anxious if they do.†According to the Home Office, drug use among all ages, including young people, has fallen in recent years. The Government, which downgraded cannabis to a grade C drug in 2004, has recently reclassified it to B. A Government spokesman said: “It is completely unacceptable for a Frank adviser to be giving out wrong, misleading and inaccurate information. We are urgently looking into the matter and will identify the person or persons involved and take action. “Frank is an important resource for young people who need help and advice about drugs. It is vital that Frank advisers give out correct and straight forward advice – we have therefore commissioned a review of the training advisers receive and will act upon it.†http://www.telegraph...an-alcohol.html