POLICE today pledged a more focused crackdown on Class A drugs when officers' time is freed up by the downgrading of cannabis.

The Association of Chief Police Officers predicts that re-classifying the drug from Class B to C will cut the time it take officers to deal with possession offences from three hours to 10 minutes.

That is because they will be able to confiscate the drug and give a formal warning on the spot, rather than the current situation of making an arrest and taking someone into custody.

A spokesman for Lancashire police said, although he could not provide specific figures, it was accepted that they arrested hundreds of people in East Lancashire each year for cannabis offences.

Therefore, the force's management can expect more than a 1,000 hours to be freed up -- the equivalent to half a year's work for one officer.

From next Thursday, the only time arrests will be made for cannabis in Lancashire is if the person is under 18, possessing it near schools, youth clubs and play area or smoking it in public. Det Supt Bob Helm, Lancashire police's drugs champion, said officers would be advised to use their discretion so that, for example, people regularly caught with cannabis could be arrested.

He added: "We have identified Class A drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and crack-cocaine as a significant threat.

"Dealing with such drugs remains a key policing priority in helping to tackle persistent offending, volume, and acquisitive crime.

"While this reclassification will allow us to focus more time and resources on Class A drugs, possession of cannabis will remain illegal and we will continue to take firm action where appropriate and necessary.

"However, as one of the aims of reclassification is to reduce police time spent dealing with simple possession offences by adult offenders, in the absence of any aggravating factors an officer on the street will generally seize the drug and administer a formal warning."

The controversial move to downgrade cannabis has been criticised by the Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, who said it sent out a message to young people that the drug was safe and legal.

He pledged to reverse the move if the Tories won the next election.

Home Secretary David Blunkett admitted he had "agonised" over the decision, but he wanted officers a focus on the dealers of Class A drugs that caused most misery in communities, not the "40 per cent of people under 30 who had tried cannabis".

A £1million government advertising campaign is being conducted about the impending downgrading, warning people that the drug is still illegal and harmful.