CAMBRIDGE, England, March 30 (UPI) -- A Cambridge, England, official suggests the city should effectively legalize pot, at least in one neighborhood where police already consider it a low priority.
Sarah Brown, a member of the Cambridge council, said marijuana use is so common in the Petersfield area that anyone who walks 300 feet is likely to smell it, The Daily Telegraph reported. The neighborhood is home to many students from Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University.
Brown, a Liberal Democrat, suggested at a council meeting Tuesday that trying to eradicate marijuana use in the area is a waste of police time.
"It seems obvious that public opinion on cannabis, at least in my ward, is at odds with the law. Resolving the disconnect is a national issue," she said in a post-meeting tweet.
Brown's suggestion has failed to gain traction and has angered some of her constituents, the Telegraph said.
"It's totally ridiculous. If someone is walking along smoking cannabis and you can smell it you can't blame the whole road," Piero d'Angelico, a Petersfield hairdresser, said. "This is an outrageous thing for the councilor to say and is very unhelpful."
Cambridge police Sgt. Colin Norden said at the meeting police enforce the law, but he acknowledged casual marijuana use is not a high priority.
"I will go after any drugs, but we focus on class A because it does more harm," he said. "If we get reports in, particularly of dealing, we will deal with that."
