Cocaine 'OK at weekends'

Lambeth Borough Commander Brian Paddick, who has forced the pace of change on cannabis laws by experimenting with warnings for people possessing small amounts of the drug, also gave his personal support for legalising cannabis and putting it on the same footing as alcohol and tobacco.

But it was his remarkable frankness about recreational drug users which stood out as he gave evidence to an all-party group of MPs examining Britain's drugs laws. He said weekend drug users were "low down my priority list".

And asked if he would consider adopting the same warning and confiscation policy for ecstasy, he told MPs: "If I felt my officers were going into nightclubs looking for people in possession of ecstasy, then I would say to them, and I would say publicly, they are wasting valuable police resources."

His comments appear to directly contradict the Yard's official policy of targeting Class A drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Commander Paddick drew a distinction between recreational users and the addicts who commit crime and spread misery feeding their habits.

Speaking in Westminster today he said: "My view is that there are a whole range of people who buy drugs, not just cannabis, but even cocaine and ecstasy, who buy those drugs with money that they have earned legitimately. They use a small amount of these drugs, a lot of them just at weekends. It has no adverse effect on the rest of the people they are with, either in terms of people they socialise with, or within the wider community, and they go back to work on Monday morning and are unaffected for the rest of the week. In terms of my priorities as an operational police officer, they are low down on my priority list."

His comments come only a week after Scotland Yard launched a get tough policy on "middle class" cocaine users in the West End. Police warned that anyone caught in possession of a single "wrap" would be prosecuted even for a first offence.

Mr Paddick, 42, however, contrasted recreational users with people addicted to crack and heroin "who cannot do anything other than think about where their next fix is coming from and commit terrible crimes in their community".

Questioned about the Lambeth experiment, he said his main motivation was "that I do not have enough police resources in Lambeth to enforce all of the laws all of the time". And he said freeing officers from the hours of paperwork had actually made it more likely that action would be taken against people caught with the drug.

He said officers who might previously have turned a blind eye were now more likely to confiscate cannabis.

He said of those cautioned: "I would say they get some sort of immediate fine in that they have spent £5 to £10 for their cannabis and they don't have it anymore. To that extent there is more enforcement of the law."

He was speaking as new European research revealed crack cocaine use growing in the UK as more nightclubbers smoke the drug.