reminds me of early 90s; when we’d ride around on all sorts of modified bicycles (mountain bikes were only just invented and rarely encountered in the suburbs of Reading!)
We’d ride down to a park by the river Thames to smoke pot, and this old school TVP bobby for our area (most of us knew him since high school) who always rode his own bicycle on patrol would always stop the lot of us at the top of the hilly bit, ensure we dismounted [cycling in the park was forbidden] and anyone who had a defect on their bike (single or missing brake, lack of reflectors etc) would get a friendly lecture about road safety.
He never once searched us for pot though and knew full well what we would be getting up to!
Only years later I realised far from being “soft” he was actually being sensible and doing what a policeman should be doing – there was no skunk/high THC varieties then so pot wasn’t a risk, the main danger was one of us could end up in the Thames (which is cold and deep with strong currents) or worse knock someone else into the river (the same park was popular with small kids and seniors)
One of the few cops I have met over the years I’ve always had respect for and a credit to the service (it was chaps like him who encouraged Sara Thornton to think differently about cannabis use..)
