Drug dealers could escape jail even if they are caught with enough cannabis to fill a suitcase.
Drug runners and small time dealers could be given community punishments even if they are arrested with six kilograms (13lb) of the class B drug.
Under sentencing guidelines published today, they can also escape jail if caught with £200 worth of cocaine or 20 ‘tabs’ of ecstasy, both Class A drugs.
Judges will be allowed to hand down a community sentence if defendants show they had a ‘lesser role’ in the deal and were not making much money.
Dealers could also escape jail if the court believed they were ‘vulnerable’ or were dealing only because they had been threatened by more senior gangsters.
The guidelines come into force next month and are likely to raise concerns that drug offences will not be punished severely enough.
Critics say anyone involved in the drugs trade should go to jail, and point out that criminals caught in the act will often accuse each other of being in charge. Tory MP Priti Patel said: ‘Sentencing guidelines should provide a clear deterrent for drug dealing.
‘These people are not just dealing drugs, they are destroying people’s lives.
‘Sentencing guidelines should be stringent, but it appears there is already a worrying loophole.’
The rules, from the Sentencing Council, set out the starting point sentences for anyone convicted of drug supply offences in England and Wales. There are currently no strict guidelines for such offences.
For dealers caught with five ‘wraps’ of cocaine or heroin – usually around a gram each – 20 ecstasy tablets or 170 ‘squares’ of LSD, the starting sentence for judges is 18 months behind bars.
This has been coming for a while…I can see a future-the not too distant future-when people don’t go to prison at all.
For anything.
Murderers will be tagged and allowed to continue with their lives.
Drug dealers will be given community punishments.
In short, society will fall apart because without the consequence of jail what will stop people committing crime?
Andrew Marr’s program last night discussed this… Chamois Chippy-butty spoke very well I thought… clever lady…
Hasn’t got a fcuking clue mind…
I can see a system that has secure hospitals for the ‘crazies’ but no prisons.
End of prison population problems eh?
Yes…
But the creation of a new problem.
A huge criminal underclass…and nowhere to pout them when it goes wrong…as it will…
I suspect I will be on a beach sipping iced tea then…
I note Richard Branson has dipped his oar into this torrent too…
Thing is about business men…
They only see profit and loss…
A business man wont spend money trying to stop a problem that appears to be unstoppable…
However, I feel he is missing the point a little…
I mean… we can’t stop murders either…shall we give up on that too? Where is the line drawn Rich?
The whole drugs intervention is flawed in any event. I mean ffs official stats estimate that the police and borders agencies between them intercept a grand total of about 3-4% of all illegal drugs before ‘point of sale’ in the UK, despite the funding being increased many times over after inflation.
It’s laughable; the home office just needs to admit the war on drugs is lost for now and start taxing it (ps, i hate drugs, and am not ‘pro-drugs’ in any way, I just think the money could be better spent elsewhere!). Candidly, resources are limited for the government for the first time in the majority of the population’s people’s living memory and we face a long, drawn-out recession. It’s about prioritisation, not morals or even ‘giving up’.
Re. Branson I think his point pretty much mine above. The fight has been lost; drug use is now depressingly prevalent amongst the younger generation, and frankly it was pretty bad amongst mine already! Start taxing and regulating it appropriately and the ‘underworld’ nature of the market collapses.
It’s not the police’s fault obviously, unless the government wants to fund them to drug test hundreds of thousands of random MoP’s daily there’s nothing they can do. And before anyone rolls out the tired old argument about jail terms needing to be long; totally agree with you, but it won’t happen due to money and space constraints. The only way to do a long stretch inside is to piss off a judge, commit serious fraud or similar, kill someone in a particularly nasty way or be convicted of serious sex offences. And even then it’s not a certainty!
When Booze was made legal in the states after prohibition and it was taxed and controlled etc …
Did the mafia go away?
Nope… They just do something different…
Slightly different surely though; the Mafia had many different revenue streams. Drug dealers usually have a single one; the drugs. Also, even if they do go into other criminal areas, at least they will be one that’s solvable.
Don’t get me wrong; I dislike drugs. I’ve seen some very promising individuals destroy their lives through them. But the reality is that the system the way it is i.e. policy is simply unenforcable at a ‘street’ level.
It is naive to suggest that drug dealers are one trick ponies. They have already diversified into cigarettes, alcohol unlawful immigration and prostitution. The idea that we legalise drugs and the dealers disappear is laughable. As stupid as suggesting we legalise prostition and the pimps go away.
Legalise the lot if you wish but organised criminals will still be bringing in drugs and undercutting those supplied by the state as they already do with cigarettes and alcohol.
The change in sentencing policy is just another nail in the coffin of our pathetic justice system that provides no meaningful consequences for poor behaviour and little in the way of rehabilitation. Nearly all drug suppliers going before the courts will now be portrayed as poor vulnerable victims and walk away with community sentences. The whole drug dealing criminal fraternity will be laughing their socks off.
Do we not have a black market in booze & cigs already both legal drugs. Why? coz they are a bit cheaper due to no tax duty. The same will happen when drugs are legalised. Those that can afford may be tempted to try. Those that use now are mostly unemployed and steal to fund the habit so nothing changes because they still need to fund their use of legal drugs. Also how do they get access to drugs. There has to be a duty of care. You cannot give drugs to someone already off their tits or in deep crisis due to addiction because if they OD who gets the blame, the GP or Pharmicist. I don’t think they would want to get involved somehow.
The only difference I see is no one gets prosecuted or locked up and the gov make money out of tax revenue but more problems arise for police, NHS , joe public in different area’s,ie road traffic offences, NHS care, anti social behaviour etc etc. So nothing gets better.
Oh wait! the tax might reduce the deficit and there will be savings on prosecutions and prisons, so it’s ok then
I’m an inner city cop. I’d like to see free heroin given to junkies in a controlled environment by nurses. This would stop the theft and robbery to get drugs money and knack the dealers into the bargain. It would also keep the junkies healthier as it wouldn’t be cut with ajax. It might even take a lot of prostitutes off the streets who are working to buy heroin.
Trouble is this plan wouldn’t work for crack or cannabis or coke as reasons for taking are different. Also, no Mail reader would vote for it.
Sadbuttrue, Who pays for that then?