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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Birt's secret drug warning to Blair
Melissa Kite The Sunday Telegraph
Sunday 03 Jul 2005 Tony Blair was warned by his strategy adviser, Lord Birt, that cannabis was responsible for more mental health emergency hospital admissions than crack cocaine seven months before the Government downgraded the drug's illegality. Secret reports by Lord Birt, released under the Freedom of Information Act, conclude that cannabis leads to long-term mental damage, has more than one million users and is responsible for 674 admissions to mental health wards in an average year. That compares with 137 admissions for crack, 518 for methadone and 146 for LSD, according to the former BBC director-general. Only heroin was higher with 3,480. Cannabis, which was downgraded from a class B drug to class C in January 2004, was ranked alongside ecstasy and LSD on a harm chart. "Very heavy use may affect ability to work and care for others," the May 2003 report says. Another confidential report by Lord Birt on the health service reveals his doubts about the increased use of the private sector to deliver improvements in the NHS, one of the central planks of Mr Blair's reforms. He concludes that there is "no evidence from overseas or from internal markets that changes in contractual design will unleash big short-term improvements". The health report, dated June 2002, paints a bleak picture of the NHS. Lord Birt warns that Britain "performs poorly in international comparisons of mortality, particularly for women and for life expectancy at 65... and it performs badly on the few specific measures of medical intervention quality which are available, such as survival rates for cancers." Lord Birt, who is unpaid, has been looking into at least six areas of government policy, including crime and transport.
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