United Kingdom: police threaten to prosecute Internet users who make fun of small cannabis seizures

After what was arguably the smallest cannabis bust in human history, West Yorkshire police saw fit to share their haul from a youngster in Wakefield, a small town in the north of England.

«PCO 687 Ian Campbell and PCSO 882 Ben Hughes were patrolling Walton Colliery Nature Park and seized a small amount of cannabis from a young man who was parked alone,» read the police Facebook post, since removed. «Walton Colliery Nature Park will now be in our patrol plan to prevent this type of behavior.»

Internet users quickly had a field day in the comments on the publication:

«Is it irony», «I hope you managed to nab Pablo Escobar this afternoon» or «Wow, that's a big coup in the war on drugs lol».

Unhappy with the way things were going, the Facebook page updated its post, with a warning:

«Please use this page with respect or you will be banned and possibly prosecuted. I would like to remind everyone that this is a Police page and your insulting, abusive or offensive posts about one of our officers involved in drug seizures in the community may result in prosecution under the Malicious Communications Act of 1988.»

This didn't stop the flood of comments, quite the contrary. Support for the police seemed meagre compared to those claiming their freedom of expression or criticizing the waste of public money, or even the pointlessness of police action for such small quantities.

A similar publication produced the same result in France, when the Nantes Police boasted for seizing 7 grams of cannabis at the Saint Jacques hospital in Rezé, near Nantes, with 24 police officers and 2 dogs.