And they say crime is falling, and that there is a 'War on Drugs'.

I noticed a couple of statistical announcements last week which received less attention than I think they should. I am, before the Thought Police detect any secret hidden message, saying no more than that they are all interesting, tending to undermine conventional wisdom. I am emphatically not connecting the slackening of law enforcement on cannabis with the rise in homicides.

The first is an extract from a story last Thursday in ���The Times���

��� The number of murders committed in England and Wales has risen for the first time in five years,  
There were 573 murders last year, 56 more than in 2014 ��� an increase of 11 per cent. Incidences of gun and knife crime also jumped ��� figures released by the Office for National Statistics yesterday showed. Recorded rapes were up by 30 per cent, to 34,700  David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, said: "It is not just murders that are going up, it is the kind of murders that are happening and the way people are being murdered. They are often much more violent, in ways that are shocking." Incidents of violent crime recorded by police jumped by almost 200,000, a trend which some analysts suggested could be linked to having fewer officers on patrol, and the recovering economy allowing more young men to drink too much.

(By contrast ���.���figures released by the Crime Survey of England and Wales, which bases its estimates on interviews with members of the public about their experience of crime. It reported that, overall, crime fell by 7 per cent in 2015, from 6.9 million incidents to 6.4 million.)���

And the in the Daily Mail of Saturday 23rd April, soon after a story on 5th April  showing that arrests for cannabis possession had fallen by  almost half between 2010 and 2015 ( ���The number of cannabis users arrested by the police has fallen by almost half in the last five years amid claims the drug is being decriminalised by the back door.  Police in England and Wales recorded 19,115 arrests for cannabis possession in 2015, compared with a high of 35,367 in 2010 - a fall of 46 per cent.), more news of the ever-slacker aopproach of police to the possession and now the growth of cannabis:

 

���PROSECUTIONS for growing cannabis have plummeted - while the number of young people using the drug has rocketed.

Shocking figures reveal that the number of people hauled to court for cultivating marijuana fell by 84 per cent between 2011 and 2014 - from 944 to just 127 - while arrests for possession have almost halved.

But a fifth more 16 to 24-year-olds admitted using cannabis last year than two years before.

Critics said the figures show the authorities are turning a blind eye and that drug possession is being decriminalised 'by the back door'. And medical experts have renewed warnings over the harmful effects of the Class B drug.

A total of 1,025,000 people aged 16 to 24 admitted using cannabis in 2014-15, compared with 849,000 in 2012-13, a rise of 21 per cent. Some 2.2 million adults aged 16 to 59 used the narcotic - up by 7 per cent. (PH asks: How can these figures possibly be arrived at?)

 

The number arrested for possession fell from 35,367 in 2010 to 19,115 last year.

And the statistics, uncovered in a Parliamentary question from former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, showed prosecutions for growing cannabis in England and Wales fell from 944 in 2011 to 319 in 2012, 214 in 2013 and 127 in 2014, the latest figures available.

Despite increasing warnings over health problems linked to cannabis, police chiefs in four forces last year signalled that cannabis users and growers were no longer a priority, and Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs' Council, admitted forces had given up investigating small-scale cannabis farms. Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: 'This is a huge drop in the number of prosecutions for cultivation. It seems either the police or the Crown Prosecution Service have decided that this is not a priority. Those involved should be hauled before the courts. We will be pursuing this matter with the Home Secretary.' Lucy Dawe, of anti-drugs group Cannabis Skunk Sense, said: '[The police] have decided cannabis is not a big issue for them. But unfortunately a lot of young people who end up in the courts have cannabis somewhere in their stories.

There is increasingly a tacit acceptance of cannabis use but many do not understand the true dangers of it - the risk of mental illness and the strong connections with acquisitive crime and violence.' David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention think-tank, said: 'This is a worrying development and raises urgent questions for the Government to answer. Is it a result of the police wilfully ignoring the law they are there to enforce, or has the Government authorised such changes, in which case this appears to suggest the creation of legislation by the back door.' Academics warn that cannabis is highly addictive, can cause mental health problems including psychosis, leads to violence and is a gateway to harder drugs. Earlier this month international drugs experts said the risk of mental illness was so serious it warranted a global public health campaign.

The Home Office said the proportion of users aged 16 to 59 has fallen from 9.6 per cent in 2004 to 6.7 per cent last year. (***How can they possibly know, let alone be so precise? PH) Bill Jephson, the National Police Chiefs' Council cannabis spokesman, said: 'We are committed to tackling the criminals at the source of wholesale cannabis cultivation...We will continue to enforce the law in a practical and proportionate way.' Guidelines for sentencing say someone growing nine plants for their own use should be let off with a fine. Those who grow it on a larger scale can be prosecuted for production of cannabis, with a maximum sentence of 14 years.���