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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Trust the experts and the evidence
The Guardian
Friday 13 Jan 2006 The decision that Charles Clarke is due to take in the next few days on cannabis is serious, but not difficult to make. On his desk is a 24-page report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs replying to a sensible request from the home secretary in March for an assessment of two new research studies. Both suggested that regular use of cannabis may have more serious mental health consequences than previously thought. The council - as we report today - accepts that the studies suggest that, for a tiny minority of people, cannabis may not only exacerbate some form of schizophrenia, but also perhaps even cause it. This certainly makes it potentially more harmful than previously thought and requires well-designed warnings of the danger. But the council insists that cannabis should remain a class C drug, to which it was downgraded two years ago. Article continues The council sets out three reasons for the status quo: the risk of developing some form of schizophrenia remains tiny; the harm caused by the drug is substantially less than from other class B substances, such as amphetamines; and the reclassification of the drug to the less serious category C has not resulted in an increase in use by adolescents or young adults. About 1% of the population suffers from some form of schizophrenia. The council estimates that the prevalence of this mental condition would be reduced by 10% if the use of cannabis could be totally eliminated. In other words cannabis, used by 3.6 million people at some point in a year, is threatening a tenth of 1% of the population. Even if the drug was restored to class B, that would not in itself reduce consumption. The leading schizophrenia charity, Rethink, supports the council's conclusions. Yet several council members fear that Mr Clarke will ignore their advice. In an interview last week he suggested the public had been "misled about the dangers" of the drug by its downgrading. That is not true. Category C does not decriminalise the drug. What it has done is ensure much more effective use of police resources. A one-third reduction in arrests has provided an extra 200,000 hours of police time to concentrate on more harmful drugs. And even with the new evidence, only one out of 36 council members supports restoring the drug's previous class B status. In its 30-year history, no one can remember a home secretary ignoring a council proposal. Why should they, when its members are drawn from some of the world's leading specialists? For ministers who rightly extol "evidence based policymaking", such a move should be even more unthinkable. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1685576,00.html
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