Don’t charge cannabis smokers, DPP tells gardaí

CANNABIS users and other small-time offenders could receive a caution rather than a criminal conviction under a radical new scheme.

The Director of Public Prosecutions is understood to have advised the Garda Síochána that it doesn’t have to prosecute all minor offences and could caution offenders instead.

The scheme, full details of which have yet to emerge, has received an initial mixed response from people in drugs-related work.