(Ed. note: Sometimes putting 2 articles together
magnifies the absurdity of marijuana prohibition. In all fairness to our English cousins,
DEAland crime stats are completely bogus. Crime here is much higher than the reported
rates.)
See
The DEAland Crime
Rate May Be Three Times Higher Than Is Reported
and linksOctober 12, 1998
From The Scotsman
Letters_ts@scotsman.com
http://www.scotsman.com/
By Tanya Thompson
CRIME RATE IS HIGHER THAN US
Report Claims That Life In Britain Is More Dangerous
BRITAIN is becoming a more dangerous place to live than the
United States, according to a report by the US Deparament of Justice.
Jack Straw, the Home Secretary is considering the findings, which were submitted to the
Home Office at the end of last month. The report shows that robbery, burglary and assaults
are more common per head of population in England and Wales than in the US.
The less common crimes of murder and rape are higher in the US, where guns are more
prevalent, but the gap is narrowing. A larger proportion of accused are convcted in the US
and are likely to receive prison sentences double or even two thirds longer than in the
UK.
The report showed that in 1995, 7.6 per cent of 1,000 people in the UK had experienced
robbery compared with 5.3 per cent in the US. The prevalence of burglary was 82.9 per cent
compared to 47.5 per cent in the US and assaults here were at 20 per cent, against 8.8 per
cent.
Norman Brennan, the national director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "I hope
that these figures will shock the British public into realising that very little is being
achieved in our battle against crime.
"The Government will not be allowed to get away with the rhetoric of
window-dressing exercises, looking for the soft option and endorsing weak sentences for
those who are the blight of our criminal justice system."
News of the report comes as the Home Office is about to release new crime statistics
for England and Wales tomorrow.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We have been aware of the
comparisons for a while. We believe the study is limited because it compares only two sets
of figures." She added that the Government was looking at alternative methods of
dealing with offenders rather than increase their jail terms.
Alum Michael, a Home Office minister, said yesterday: "We are determined to learn
the right lessons from the report and reverse this trend."
Last night, a spokesman for the Scotiish Office said it did not
record crime on a per capita basis, making a direct comparison difficult but he added that
crime in Scotland was falling.
The total number of crimes recorded north of the Border fell from 451,956 in 1996 to
420,642 last year. Housebreaking reached a peak in 1992 at 113,160, but dropped
substantially last year to 55,471. The number of serious assaults also fell to 6,053 last
year - down by 13 per cent.
The spokesman said: "Although it is difficult to compare the figures in England
and Wales let alone in the US, we can say that the number of crimes in Scotland is
falling.
"The trend is definitely down with some large decreases in housebreaking. The
chances of you being involved in a violent crime is very small."
The number of robberies dropped by 15 per cent to 4,484 last year. However, petty
assaults has risen to 50,088, up 5 per cent compared to 1996 and there has been a worrying
increase in sexual assaults. In 1997 there were 1,979 sexual assaults, up 14 per cent on
the previous year. Police say the fact that people are more willing to report sexual
crimes may account for the rise.
In the Strathclyde region, serious assaults were down 7.7 per cent, robbery and
assaults fell by 10.1 per cent and theft by housebreaking fell 6 per cent.
Copyright: © ©The Scotsman Publications Ltd
October 11, 1998
From The London Telegraph
et.letters@telegraph.co.uk
By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent
MPS MOVE TO OUTLAW SALE OF CANNABIS SEEDS
THE possession of cannabis seed and the equipment necessary for the cultivation of the
drug are to be outlawed, under proposals favoured by Home Office ministers.
The Government is looking "sympathetically" at a demand
from Britain’s chief constables for an end to the legal traffic in cannabis seeds. Ministers
think banning the seeds and equipment would send out a strong signal that they are
prepared to be tough on drugs.
(Ed. note: Cannabis seeds of types that have not been sterilized are illegal in the US,
but these laws and Draconian penalties have not prevented wide-spread cultivation of
marijuana in the US. As it happens, marijuana arrests make up 80% of UK "drug"
arrests. This is a really stupid waste of police resources.)
The move follows intense lobbying from detectives who think it is an "absurd
loophole" in the current law that anyone can legally buy cannabis seeds which can
then be cultivated.
Malcolm George, the secretary of the drugs sub-committee of the Association of Chief
Police Officers, said: "We would like some sort of offence brought in to remove this
anomaly. There’s only one thing you can do with cannabis seeds and that’s grow
cannabis plants."
(Ed. note: How will they distinguish between "cannabis"
(marijuana) seeds and industrial hemp seeds? Hemp cultivation is legal in the UK. Of
course, the equipment can be used to grow other things and is legal even in DEAland.)
Supported