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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Clarke will not change legal status of cannabis
Times on-line
Wednesday 18 Jan 2006 Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, is expected to rule out another reclassification of cannabis tomorrow despite fresh fears about the drug’s side-effects. Concerns about a link between super-strength varieties and mental illness have mounted since his predecessor David Blunkett down-graded the drug from Class B to C. But Mr Clarke is expected launch a major public information campaign instead of adding to confusion by again changing the classification. His announcement follows an unpublished report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which apparently found the impact of smoking cannabis on mental health was more serious than previously thought. The council is said to have stopped short of recommending reclassification and many drugs experts believe that would be counter-productive. The council report is said to have concluded: "The risk to an individual of developing a schizophreniform illness as a result of using cannabis is very small. "The harmfulness of cannabis to the individual remains substantially less than the harmfulness caused by substances currently controlled under the act as Class B." Mr Clarke was apparently warned by council members that some would consider quitting if he reclassified the drug. The new Tory leader, David Cameron, was a member of the Commons committee which recommended down-grading it and his party is no longer pushing for reclassification. The Home Secretary has been criticised for spreading confusion after voicing concerns about the effects of cannabis. He will hope to counter that with the hard-hitting campaign about the risks the drug poses, which will also warn young people that cannabis is neither legal nor safe despite its reclassification. Reclassifying cannabis from Class B to C made possession of it a non-arrestable offence in most cases.
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