Although the law on cannabis is changing, local police officers will continue the drive against drug abuse, Tenby's police chief warned this week.
With less than a week to go until the drug is downgraded to a class C drug next Thursday, Inspector Les Clark stressed that officers at Tenby, Saundersfoot and Narberth would continue to utilise their powers of stop and search when drug possession was suspected.
"Reclassifying the drug, does not mean that cannabis is being legalised," he told the Observer this week.
"Possession of the drug is still an arrestable offence," he warned.
Police forces, however, are being encouraged to not exercise the power of arrest in certain circumstances and caution offenders instead.
Arrests will continue:
• For persons under the age of 18 years.
• To protect young persons (e.g. when it is suspected that cannabis will be supplied to a young person).
• Vulnerable persons (e.g. mentally handicapped).
Continued Insp. Clark: "The change in the law does not affect the powers of arrest for drug dealers who sell or supply cannabis or those who produce/grow cannabis plants.
"Many people are of the view that cannabis has been legalised or somehow decriminalised. This is not the case. Cannabis is still an illegal substance and its production and supply are serious offences, which remain arrestable.
"Suppliers of cannabis should take no comfort in this reclassification at all. It is the drug that is being downgraded not my policing stance. I will pursue suppliers where I find them and will continue with my policy of intelligence led policing involving the execution of search warrants issued under the Misuse of Drugs Act."