By Chris Bovey

In the modern world, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have become a vital means of communications for businesses, campaign groups, government institutions, etc.,

Most police forces in the UK have a Facebook page and we here at Feed The Birds often get sent a message with a link to a daft police bust where a force is boasting on social media about a pathetic cannabis seizure. We often share these on our network of pages inviting people to give a comment, which generally will not be to sing high praises at their policing.

This one was brought to our attention by Crayford Police who published boasting about an impressive seizure of two cannabis joints and a grinder. The South American Cartels are apparently already shitting themselves.

The post has since been removed along with their Facebook page, luckily we screenshotted it for prosperity:

There are over two million regular cannabis consumers in the UK, so these kinds of posts will often get their attention and it appears stoners are savvier in social media than the police.

Here is a screenshot from some of 7,200 plus comments left, most of which were not in approval of such a waste of police resources.

Meanwhile, recently on Valentine’s Day, the local plod in the district of Tendring in Essex, also published a photo of a tiny bust of a tiny grow tent in someone’s spare room.

This post has just been deleted, as it was flooded with people taking the piss, so I cannot embed the code, so evidentially they don’t have much humour at Tendring police. Fortunately, I still had it open on my laptop, so I could could take screenshots.

Here are some comments before the post was deleted:

I’m not quite sure why Essex police think February is the time of year people like to do indoor cannabis grows. With two million regular consumers on these isles, there is a need for demand and supply all year round.

We don’t know who this small grow tent belonged to. It doesn’t look very big, perhaps a recreational or medical consumer who doesn’t like to source on the criminal black market, plus it’s much cheaper to grow your own weed.

I wonder if Tendring police are aware by shutting down minuscule grows, asides from being a waste of taxpayers’ money at a time of massive cuts to the British police due to Tory austerity cuts, they are potentially fuelling organised crime and people trafficking of children?

In many US states and Canada, as well as European countries like The Netherlands, Portugal, Czech Republic, Belgium, Luxembourg, it is decriminalised or legal to grow a small number of plants, or even a large number in Spain. Luxembourg is soon to fully legalise.

Where do the police think people who need cannabis will source it from if they shut down their tiny grow tent in a back room that is causing no harm to society whatsoever? The answer is probably cannabis that has been grown by organised criminal gangs who often bypass the electric meter, grow in unsafe conditions that have fire hazards and even use victims of people trafficking, including children, to grow substandard weed to meet the demand.

Who are the real victims of crime?

I’d like to ask Essex police who are the real victims in cannabis prohibition, some poor recreational or medicinal consumer who has a few plants on the go to save money and to grow the exact strain of cannabis they need or the child slaves smuggled into the country by ruthless gangs to grow the cannabis under lock and key in the most appalling conditions?

If they really cared about crime, they would follow the lead of other police force areas such as Durham or Avon and Somerset who do not bother with tiny grows or small amounts of possession. Cannabis needs to be fully legalised in the UK, just as they have recently done so in Canada. This postcode lottery cannabis policing has to end, it makes the police look stupid.

I hope those arrested opt for a Crown Court trial, as it seems the authorities don’t like to waste money on expensive Crown Court trials for minor cannabis offences and hopefully the CPS will once again decide a prosecution is “not in the public interest”.