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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: UK: Clarke to leave the cannabis laws as they are
Daily Mail
Thursday 19 Jan 2006 Charles Clarke will resist demands for cannabis to be re-classified despite admitting being "very worried" about its links to mental illness. The Home Secretary will admit that Labour has created confusion about the dangers of smoking the drug and failed to warn the public properly. But, in a statement to MPs, he is expected to anger campaign groups by ruling that cannabis, including super-strength skunk, should remain Class-C. Mr Clarke will attempt to head off the cries of protest by promising a police crackdown on major drug dealers and a campaign to educate the public about mounting evidence linking cannabis to psychosis. But the timing of the decision sparked allegations that Mr Clarke was engaged in helping the Government to "bury bad news". His statement, expected at lunchtime, will help to distract some of the attention from Education Secretary Ruth Kelly's fight to save her job over the scandal of sex offenders in schools. In a series of apparent smoke screens, John Prescott's admission that his council tax had been mistakenly paid from the public purse grabbed the headlines last week. A new prostitution strategy, allowing mini-brothels, has also been unveiled. Mr Clarke and Tony Blair have both given strong hints that they wanted the drug shifting back to Class B, which would once again make possession an arrestable offence. 'Charles feels that the message that was sent out was that cannabis was legal and not harmful' Earlier this month, Mr Clarke said he was "very worried" about recent evidence suggesting a strong link between cannabis and mental illness. But he has been forced to switch position after the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the Government's own panel of experts, resisted change. The panel's members threatened to resign if Mr Clarke overruled their advice. Sources close to the Home Secretary say he will move to correct the "false message" sent out when Labour downgraded the classification of the drug in January 2004 - an admission that the Government got it wrong. Instead, he will emphasise the harmful effects of cannabis and call for the police to launch a crackdown both on the dealers who peddle marijuana and the so-called cannabis farms, where the drug is grown. "Charles feels that the message that was sent out was that cannabis was legal and not harmful," an aide said. "He wants to reverse that impression." Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, which has called for reclassification, said Mr Clarke had ignored the advice of psychiatrists and others on the front line. They experience the "immense suffering" of individuals and families whose lives have been wrecked by the drug. Coinciding with Kelly's speech 'pure coincidence' - Clarke spokesman She added: "While we welcome the Home Secretary's renewed pledge to a public education campaign, it will be even harder now to convince young people that by taking cannabis they are playing Russian Roulette with their minds." The scheduling clash is not the first high-profile announcement or leak to be made in the last week in the wake of the Kelly affair. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said he welcomed the fact that the Home Secretary was coming to make a statement to the Commons but "raised an eyebrow" at the timing. Conservative MP Mike Penning said Mr Clarke, as well as shielding Miss Kelly, might also be attempting to bury his own bad news. "I am disturbed by the incompetence of a government that has been so wrong on such an important issue and by how underhand they are being over the announcement. "This sort of review needs to be debated in the full glare of public scrutiny, not brushed under the carpet in the hope that nobody notices how much of a mess the Government has made." Tory backbencher David Davies said: "Tony Blair talks about being tough on crime and respect but the reality is that the Government is happy for you to spend your afternoon at a brothel smoking a spliff and they are so embarrassed about it that they are burying the news." A spokesman for Mr Clarke said: "We agreed to do a statement to the house. It happens to fall on the same day as Ruth Kelly's statement. It is a pure coincidence." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=374501&in_page_id=1770
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