Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Cannabis: a gentle warning from your friendly neighbourhood bureaucrat

Of course, I am fully aware that my readers are all thoroughly law abiding souls, but given your catholic tastes in friends and acquaintances, I thought you might like to pass word on…

The change in categorisation of cannabis from class C to B was announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last May, and comes into force on 26 January. It means the penalty on conviction for summary cases, those conducted without a jury trial, will increase.

Offenders currently pay three times the value of the drug or £500 – whichever is greater – and can be imprisoned for up to three months. This will go up to three times the value or £2,000, with a potential prison sentence of six months.

The penalties for conviction on indictment are not affect by the reclassification.

Rules governing compounding, where offenders found with small quantities of the drug may in certain circumstances be offered the chance to pay a settlement instead of facing court proceedings, also differ between class C and class B drugs.

1 comment:

MatGB said...

"I am fully aware that my readers are all thoroughly law abiding souls,"

So you're 100% certain that Nick doesn't read here? I thought most of the party was planning on breaking the ID cards law?

Oh, drugs policy. Silly fools, won't make a difference to take up, just headline grabbing idiocy, can we have a royal commission to look at the evidence please?