Editing Brixton (section)

===Drugs===
Some media commentators persistently call Brixton "the drugs capital of London".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/24/drugsandalcohol.tonythompson |title=Drugs and Alcohol |work=The Guardian |location=London |first=Tony |last=Thompson |date=24 February 2002 |access-date=27 April 2010 |archive-date=16 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416010942/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/24/drugsandalcohol.tonythompson |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Val Shawcross]], Labour representative on the [[London Assembly]] for Lambeth and Southwark, runs a "Brixton Drug Crime" campaign and she states on her website:
<blockquote>I have been raising the disgraceful state of Brixton and the existence of an open drugs market in the centre – with the Council, Mayor and the Metropolitan police... The police, the Drugs and Firearms Unit and Transport Operational Unit officers have been undertaking long-term surveillance of the area (Brixton Town Centre) culminating in a three-day operation at the end of June to arrest those dealing Class A drugs... The police will be carrying out continuing covert operations in Brixton and patrolling with drug detection dogs. This is a long-term crackdown with the aim on cleaning the dealers out of Brixton.(retrieved July 2008)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.valshawcross.com/index.php?id=117 |title=Brixton Drug Crime |publisher=Val Shawcross |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106114709/http://www.valshawcross.com/index.php?id=117 |archive-date=6 January 2009}}</ref></blockquote>

For many decades, Brixton has had a reputation for [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] use and the BBC has quoted a local resident as saying "People have always smoked cannabis in Brixton – everyone knows that, people have walked down the street smoking spliffs for years." This reputation was amplified by the "softly softly" police approach to cannabis that was piloted in Brixton in 2001 to 2005. Concerns were raised about "drug tourism" to the area.<ref name=autogenerated6 /> The "softly-softly" pilot occurred in the context of a wider debate in Britain about the classification of cannabis. Despite the pilot being stopped and replaced by a "no deal" policy, the [[Metropolitan Police]] was in favour of a reclassification of cannabis from class B to class C. Cannabis was officially reclassified in Britain from a class B down to a class C drug in early 2004. In January 2009 the UK government reclassified cannabis back to a class B drug.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/dec/29/drugsandalcohol.immigrationpolicy |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=Police extend softly-softly pilot scheme on cannabis possession |first=Nick |last=Hopkins |date=29 December 2001 |access-date=27 April 2010 |archive-date=10 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140510130347/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/dec/29/drugsandalcohol.immigrationpolicy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4625404.stm |work=BBC News |title=Cannabis will remain class C drug |date=19 January 2006 |access-date=27 April 2010 |archive-date=13 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213182742/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4625404.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Tiggey May |author2=Martin Duffy |author3=Hamish Warburton |author4=Mike Hough |url=http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/1998.asp |title=Policing cannabis as a Class C drug |website=Jrf.org.uk |date=21 January 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020074318/http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/1998.asp |archive-date=20 October 2008}}</ref>