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UK: Clarke to announce decision on cannabis classification

Matthew Tempest

The Guardian

Wednesday 18 Jan 2006

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The home secretary, Charles Clarke, will announce tomorrow whether or
not the government is intending to return cannabis to class B status.

His statement will set out the government's response to a report from
the advisory council on the misuse of drugs, looking at the latest
scientific evidence on cannabis potency and links with mental health
problems such as schizophrenia.

At the weekend experts from that panel - whose internal Home Office
review has not been made public, but rejects reclassification back up to
class B - threatened to resign if the home secretary ignores that advice.

In recent weeks Mr Clarke has hinted that he is considering reversing
his predecessor David Blunkett's decision to make cannabis a class C drug.

He told the Times "The thing that worries me most [about the downgrading
of cannabis] is confusion among the punters about what the legal status
of cannabis is.

"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."

However, it would be a major surprise if he decided to upgrade the
drugs' classification tomorrow. Instead, a major public health and
awareness campaign on the dangers of the drug is likely.

David Cameron is yet to declare official Tory policy on whether to
upgrade cannabis, waiting publication of the ACMD report, but his shadow
home secretary, David Davis, said repeatedly during their leadership
contest that he would like to see it return to class B.

Mr Clarke announced the review of recent medical studies linking
higher-strength skunk varieties of cannabis with a propensity to
schizophrenia just before last year's general election - and was accused
of kicking the issue into the long grass.

The timing of his announcement, which will follow on immediately from
Ruth Kelly's emergency statement on the employment of sex offenders in
schools, could also be seen as an attempt to deflect attention from the
under-fire education secretary.

The Guardian, which has seen a leak of the report, said its conclusions
state: "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.

 

 

 

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