Dorset PCC Sidwick tells MPs not to decriminalise cannabis

Speaking to MPs on the Home Affairs Committee carrying out an inquiry into illegal drug use, Dorset PCC David Sidwick also said legalising cannabis would "unequivocally" not make things easier from a crime point of view.

He also said the majority of PCCs are against the idea and it will only create more crime and public health problems.

Mr Sidwick told MPs: "There's two issues here one, would it make life any easier from the point of view of the crime aspect? No. Unequivocally.

"So it won't change a thing, it will just make it worse.

"If we are looking at it from a public health perspective, look, this has been tried.

"Portugal had a 30-fold increase in its psychosis hospitalisations between 2010 and 2015.

"Scotland itself mentioned a 74 per cent increase in the same thing it was reported in the papers in January.

"Professors of psychiatry are calling for cannabis to be a class A drug again.

"The US we know that every four minutes somebody is hospitalised for psychosis from cannabis.

"So, from that perspective, just looking at psychosis, I'd say 'No.' But I've had to examine this in depth.

"And you can see the same thing with autism a 60 per cent uplift in those states.

"You can see an increase in those states which have legalised, for cancer, for birth defects."

Panel members, which included the chief constables of Merseyside Police and Thames Valley Police, were asked for their opinions on decriminalisation and regulation of some drugs, notably cannabis, after they had taken evidence at previous hearings in favour of the move.

Mr Sidwick added: "If you look at places across the world where they've done it, like California, the black market there is five times larger than what it was before.

"The last time there was a state-sanctioned drug like this it was called Thalidomide."

The inquiry is scheduled to hold more evidence sessions before publishing a report on the issue later this year.