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UK: Best left to the experts
The Guardian
Friday 20 May 2005 Tony Blair will be disappointed. Earlier this week he told the Commons that he was expecting an experts' report on whether he should restore cannabis to a category B drug, remaking possession an arrestable offence, within weeks. Yesterday the experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) set up a technical committee to re-examine the harmfulness of the drug, but it is not expected to report until December. The re-examination was prompted by two developments. First, research produced by two new studies suggesting regular use of cannabis may have more serious mental health consequences than previously thought. Second, the increase in the use of a stronger form of cannabis - "skunk" - prompting questions whether this more dangerous variety should carry higher penalties. The two new research studies were sensibly referred by the home secretary to the ACMD in March to delay the debate about reclassification until after the election. It is only 16 months ago that the government followed the advice, set out in 2000 by the report from the independent inquiry into the drug laws, that cannabis should be downgraded from category B to the less harmful and non-arrestable category C. The inquiry team - which included senior medics, top pharmacologists and chief officers of police - set out to reclassify drugs by their harmfulness in the light of evidence that has emerged since the three categories were set 30 years previously. The members were aware that heavy use of cannabis could produce temporary acute psychosis for people predisposed to mental ill health, but concluded the drug was much less harmful than crack, heroin, ecstasy or LSD. What was unclear was whether cannabis only triggered psychotic attacks in someone who was already ill, or whether it could cause attacks in someone who was previously well. The two new reports suggest it might do the latter as well. Clearly the ACMD is the best body to determine this issue. It should not be rushed, given the complex issues involved and the serious consequences of the decision. What the prime minister must not do - as this week he implied he might - is to upgrade cannabis no matter what the ACMD concludes. He needs to remember his pledge to pursue evidence-based policy-making. As for making "skunk" a more serious offence, this would be a nightmare to police. It is not just drugs that are harming young people, but the law, too, in the way it criminalises them for an activity which causes no harm to many millions of users.
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