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UK: Expert Advisers Threaten Revolt Against Clarke

James Randerson

The Guardian

Saturday 14 Jan 2006

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Reclassification 'Would Be Playing to Gallery'

Authors of Secret Report Threaten Resignation

Members of a top drug advisory panel who wrote a secret report to the
home secretary on cannabis may resign if the government reclassifies
the drug to class B, the Guardian has learned.

They are concerned that Charles Clarke is considering upgrading
cannabis and say this would be in direct contradiction to the
findings of their unpublished report. They say such a move would set
a "damaging precedent", and that their report - which the Guardian
has seen - explicitly rules out reclassification.

Lord Victor Adebowale, director of the drug treatment charity Turning
Point and member of the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs (ACMD),
said: "I am increasingly concerned about the politicisation of this -
the playing to the gallery." He said it would be "very serious" for
the home secretary to ignore the council's advice. "This wasn't a
group of long-haired ex-cannabis smokers. These are some of the best
pharmacologists in the country with worldwide reputations," he said.
"He's basically saying he's got no confidence in their opinion."

In recommending that the drug remain at class C, the report says:
"The council does not advise that the classification of
cannabis-containing products should be changed on the basis of the
result of recent research into the effects on the development of
psychoses. Although it is unquestionably harmful, its harmfulness
does not equate to that of other class B substances both at the level
of the individual or society."

It recommends maintaining the status quo for three reasons: the risk
of developing mental illness from smoking cannabis is very small; the
harm caused by the drug is substantially less than other class B
substances, such as amphetamines; and reclassification has not
resulted in an increase in use by adolescents and young adults.

Last week, Mr Clarke hinted that he was considering a U-turn. "The
thing that worries me most [about the downgrading of cannabis] is
confusion among the punters about what the legal status of cannabis
is," he told the Times. "I'm very struck by the advocacy of a number
of people who have been proposers of the reclassification of cannabis
that they were wrong."

Leslie King, a member of the ACMD's technical committee and former
head of the Forensic Science Service's drugs intelligence unit, said
that if the home secretary ignored the panel's advice, it would have
"considerable ramifications" for the ACMD's credibility. Professor
Leslie Iversen, a pharmacologist at Oxford University and ACMD
member, said that if Mr Clarke ignored the committee's advice it
would set an "unfortunate precedent".

Asked whether council members might consider resigning he said: "I
can't speak for my colleagues, but I would think quite carefully
about whether it is worth devoting a lot of effort and time to this
type of exercise if your advice is going to be ignored."

Another ACMD member, Martin Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope,
agreed that resignations might follow. "Our view is that if the
government chooses not to follow the advisory council's
recommendation they've got to really have pretty compelling reasons not to."

 

 

 

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