Cops swoop on cannabis festival where drug users were openly getting high…to investigate reports of loud music

Get the full story here: The Sun, 11 August 2016, link.

POLICE who swooped on a cannabis festival ignored revellers openly flouting drugs laws – as they instead launched an investigation into loud music at the event.

Around 500 stoners were getting high last weekend at the Canna Camp Fest event – dubbed Hashtonbury Festival.

Despite hundreds of campaigners smoking the class-B illegal drug , officers made no arrests.

Instead they spent time gathering evidence into “potential licensing offences” over claims organisers did not have a licence to play amplified music at the event in Redcar, Cleveland.

Peter Cuthbertson of the Centre for Crime Prevention, who was the Conservative candidate in this year’s election for Police and Crime Commissioner in Darlington and County Durham, said: “It’s worrying if police now prioritise noise issues over drug abuse.

“These people should not be above the law.

“It’s easy to blame the police, but there is a real issue about the courts being so lax on drug users that police lose interest in pursuing them.” […]

Get the full story here: The Sun, 11 August 2016, link.