Police swoop on cannabis festival to inspect ... loud music

Open drug use and a passionate call for the legalisation of marijuana characterised the third annual Canna Camp Fest, held in Redcar last weekend.

Despite hundreds of campaigners flouting the law to smoke the class-B drug throughout the event, Cleveland Police made no arrests.

Instead, officers attending the event spent their time gathering evidence relating to “potential licensing offences” rather than tackling the blatant drug use.

GangGreenz who performed on the main stage at the festival. Picture: CHRIS BOOTH

Last night, crime campaigners expressed concerns over police priorities.

Peter Cuthbertson, of the Centre for Crime Prevention – 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.”

He added: “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."

It is believed noise from bands playing throughout the event was in breach of laws which restrict amplified sound without an entertainments licence.

A spokeswoman for the force confirmed they were investigating the festival’s organisers for issues believed to be related to the lack of an appropriate licence.

She added: “This event took place without any reports to police of cannabis being consumed from members of the public or organisers of the event.

“Had any allegations of offences been made then officers would have dealt with those offences appropriately.

“Cleveland Police does not tolerate illegal drug use and will always act upon reports of controlled drug misuse.”

Event organiser and founder of Teesside Cannabis Club John Holliday, said police made him aware just days before the festival that it was not covered by Redcar Rugby Club’s existing entertainments licence.

With not enough time to apply for their licence, organisers pushed ahead with the event, telling police officers they would be welcome to conduct an investigation there.

Mr Holliday and a fellow organiser will be attending a voluntary interview with Cleveland Police today in relation to the resulting allegations.

He said: “We’ve been communicating with the police about this event for months and think licensing was brought in at such a late stage in a last-ditch attempt to shut us down.

“They tried to shut us down on alcohol laws previously but we don’t allow that at our festival, so now it’s licensing.

“It is a crazy scenario, they came down on Saturday, we welcomed them and helped them to gather their evidence.

“Now they want to interview me before sending evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service."

He added: “This is nothing to do with cannabis use – they’ve never arrested us for that, we sometimes say that we’re the UK’s only legal cannabis festival.

“We don’t encourage or condone breaking the law but they could have come down mob-handed and locked up 500 stoners for personal possession of cannabis.

“That would have been a lot of paperwork and a complete waste of resources for them, they need to be focusing on more important things.

“When you look at how thinly police are spread in this area and what they have to deal with, it’s easy to understand why they don’t want to focus on cannabis users.

“If police are willing to waste public money on investigating a licensing issue at a cannabis festival, I think they need to rethink their priorities.”