Sir Mark Rowley and Caroline Russell. Photo: Surrey County Council News_CC BY 2.0

THE Met’s new police commissioner has said it is a “no brainer” to try new diversion strategies for those found with cannabis rather than criminalising people – leading to calls for London Mayor Sadiq Khan to speed up a change in approach.

Highbury councillor Caroline Russell pressed both Sir Mark Rowley, who has replaced Dame Cressida Dick at the top of the capital’s force, and Mr Khan on the issue in different sessions at City Hall.

Answering her questions, Sir Mark suggested he supported the idea that instead of charging people, they could be helped towards support services – a method which, he said, could lead to less re-offending.

“This isn’t about being sentimental or soft. This is about evidence and the evidence is that with certain types of crime, where you have the right conditions regarding the nature of the victim and the offender, that diver­sion creates higher victim satisfaction and lower recidivism,” he said.

“If you’ve got both of those things, why wouldn’t you do it? If you’ve got both those things it seems to be a bit of a no brainer.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan

But Ms Russell – who is also a Green Party London Assembly member – was unable to get firmer support from Mr Khan during Mayor’s Question Time.

She was told she had run out of time even for a simple answer to the question as to whether he saw himself more like Joe Biden, the US president who has pardoned people prosecuted for cannabis use, or Suella Braverman, who had talked about increasing prison sentences for cannabis offences and even upgrading the drug’s classification before her resignation.

Despite Sir Mark’s willingness to answer the questions the day earlier, Mr Khan said: “To give Sir Mark some credit and some breathing space – he’s only begun three weeks ago – he’ll be preoccupied with other issues and you’ll appreciate that drugs diversion is not at the forefront of his mind, nor indeed mine.”

Ms Russell said: “I’m really glad that the new commissioner agreed with me about the benefits of deprioritising arresting and criminalising people for possession.”

She told Mr Khan: “You’ve got a new commissioner who has an appetite for adopting this in this city, so Londoners can benefit from a more ‘harm reduction’ approach to the policing of cannabis.”

She said a dispropor­tionate number of black people were being criminalised for cannabis use, and questioned when a new drugs commission would start work. “It feels stuck, like it’s not moving forward,” she added.

Her party has a long-standing national policy standpoint of legalising cannabis.