News.Scotland.Org

Scotland, Nov 27: The people carrying the minor drugs in the city centre will not be arrested! Those people carrying minor amount of cocaine, Ecstasy, heroin and other illegal substances will only have them confiscated. This move is an attempt to make the Police chiefs gain more time for patrolling in Edinburgh’s busiest area rather than dealing with minor cases of drug possession.

The door staff in pubs and clubs will also be informed not to call police if they get hold of any small drug possessors. They would be asked to store the drugs in sealed containers so that the officers could collect them later.

But the politicians severely criticised this proposal as they believe that any relaxation of the law would create a ‘drug tolerance zone’ in Edinburgh.

This proposal was put forth last week by Inspector Andy Gilhooley soon after taking charge of the central policing team at the West End station. Even though the proposal was not implemented he supported the idea.

“If someone is caught with little amount of drug worth £2 the police have to spend considerable amount of time for arresting that person. This has happened in various UK cities. Just we are looking for best practical way. I would like to keep officers on the streets rather than being distracted and wasting time to deal with someone caught with little amount of drugs,” said Andy Gilhooley.

While commenting on this the convener of the police board, Councillor Iain Whyte said: “This move was not brought to my notice. I’m lot more concerned about encouraging the door staff to take possession of the drugs we can’t be sure where they would end up.Most among the public are also worried about the ides of the drug tolerance zone in the city centre.”

According to a Scottish Government spokesman the crack down on the drug possession remained official policy.

Let us wait and see what will be the after effects of this sensational proposal and its implementation.

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