---<br /> <br /> The number of people caught with cannabis soared after the Government <br /> announced it was making possession of the drug a less serious crime.<br /> <br /> In just two years, there was an increase of 23.5 per cent as many teenagers <br /> assumed the drug had been decriminalised.<br /> <br /> The alarming rise came even before police were ordered to stop arresting <br /> and taking to court those found with small quantities of the drug, which <br /> has now been officially "downgraded".<br /> <br /> Since then - the first published evidence showed yesterday - use of <br /> cannabis has shot up even more. The figures were released by the Home <br /> Office on the day the United Nations condemned the Government for going <br /> easy on cannabis and warned that it was sending users "the wrong signal".<br /> <br /> Only last week a study by eminent psychiatrists demonstrated the powerful <br /> links between cannabis and mental illness.<br /> <br /> Teenagers who smoke cannabis are 4.5 times more likely than others to <br /> suffer problems, including schizophrenia by their mid-twenties.<br /> <br /> Yesterday's figures for those caught with the drug show the numbers using <br /> it raced upwards as soon as then Home Secretary David Blunkett announced <br /> the downgrading of the seriousness of possessing cannabis following <br /> Labour's 2001 election victory.<br /> <br /> Rising figures<br /> <br /> In that year, some 66,410 people were cautioned, convicted or otherwise <br /> dealt with by the courts for cannabis offences - the lowest for a decade.<br /> <br /> By the following year, numbers had gone up by nearly 12,000 to 78,050. In <br /> 2003, there was a further jump to 82,060, a rise of 23.5 per cent in just <br /> two years and a dramatic reversal of the decline in cannabis use detected <br /> since 1998.<br /> <br /> There were big jumps, too, in the numbers of people caught using cocaine <br /> and crack over the same period.<br /> <br /> The downgrading of cannabis, from a Class B drug alongside amphetamines to <br /> Class C, a category including prescription medicines and anabolic steroids, <br /> went ahead in January last year.<br /> <br /> Powerful evidence of what has happened since then has been supplied by the <br /> Metropolitan Police, which said that the number of people caught with <br /> cannabis in London in summer 2004 was 33 per cent up on 2003 levels.<br /> <br /> The downgrading means possession is no longer an arrestable offence.<br /> <br /> Police are under instructions not to arrest those found with small <br /> quantities of the drug but to issue an informal warning and confiscate the <br /> cannabis.<br /> <br /> 'Wrong signals'<br /> <br /> Yesterday Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN International <br /> Narcotics Control Board, said: "What the UK has done with cannabis does not <br /> breach international conventions. The problem is that probably it gives the <br /> wrong message and the wrong signals. Drug users have misinterpreted what <br /> the Government has done."<br /> <br /> The price of cannabis has dropped by around 40 per cent in five years, <br /> other Home Office figures showed yesterday. An ounce of the drug which cost <br /> ukp100 in December 1999 would be just ukp61 now.<br /> <br /> Cocaine fell from ukp63 a gram to ukp51 over the same period while heroin <br /> slipped from ukp65 a gram to ukp55. A 200mg "rock" of crack is ukp18, down <br /> from ukp20 at the end of 1999, and an Ecstasy pill is now ukp4 instead of <br /> ukp11.<br /> <br /> Asked about the offending figures, a Home office spokesman said: "The <br /> reclassification of cannabis has helped police and customs target Class A <br /> drugs such as crack and cocaine which cause the most harm to individuals, <br /> families and communities.<br /> <br /> "Early indications are that arrests for cannabis possession have fallen <br /> since reclassification."<br /> <br />Aurora Indica |  B52 |  Big Bud |  California Orange Bud |  Citral |  Four Way |  Haze |  Hindu Kush |  Indoor Mix |  Jock Horror |  K2 |  Maroc x Afghan |  Northern Light x Big Bud |  Northern Light x Haze |  Northern Light x Shiva |  Shiva |  Skunk #1 |  Skunk Red Hair |  Skunk Special |  Papaya |  White Rhino |  Haze 19 x Skunk |  Afghan |  Master Kush |  Northern Light |  Super Skunk |  Top 44 |  Durban Poison |  Early Bud |  Early Girl |  Early Misty |  Early Special |  Hawaii x Maui Waui |  Hawaii x Skunk #1 |  Hollands Hope |  KC 33 x Master Kush |  Mixed Sativa |  New Purple Power |  Swazi |  Swiss Miss |  Northern Bright |  Snow White (fem.) |  Supergirl |  Venus |  Wonder Woman |  Kaya |  PPP (fem.) |  Medusa |  Blue Mystic |  Chrystal |  Ice |  Misty |  PPP |  White Widow |  Nirvana Special |  White Rhino |  Snow White |  AK-48 |  Bubblelicious |  Silver Pearl |  Haze |  Jock Horror |  Northern Light x Haze |  White Rhino |  Haze 19 x Skunk |