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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Call to make cannabis Class A drug 'dangerously off base' Carl Eve Gornwall Live Monday 05 Sep 2022 A retired crime commissioner and charity chief have rounded on suggestions by Devon and Cornwall's crime commissioner that cannabis should be reclassified as a class A drug, alongside crack cocaine and heroin. Jason Reed, co-executive director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP UK) - a United Nations accredited non-government organisation and charity - said the idea put forward last month by Alison Hernandez was "dangerously off base". He emphasised that her view did not take into account a number of important facts and highlighted how LEAP's expertise in the field was recognised, thanks to its inclusion of members of law enforcement, military and others who have worked at the drugs frontline. He said his organisation called for "evidence and health based approaches to drug policy in order to make society safer, loosen the grip of organised crime, and help give services the chance to deal with drugs in appropriate manners." In June Ms Hernandez joined officers from Merseyside Police's specialist 'Medusa' team who were targeting County Lines drugs gangs operating in the South West. The operation, which saw Devon and Cornwall Police officers work alongside the specialist Medusa team, sought to disrupt drug gangs from Merseyside setting up shop in coastal towns, like those of Torquay and Plymouth, often deploying violence and intimidation to run their profitable enterprises. However, during the operation she dismissed suggestions that legalisation would reduce crime and said the law should actually be tougher. She said: "Cannabis, potentially, should probably be a class A, not a class B drug. The level of psychosis and actual harm to individuals by taking these drugs is so great that I would never look to legalise it. "You could talk about the legalisation of alcohol and tobacco, but hey, we’ve still got an illicit industry in the sale of those as well. So it doesn’t even take away the black market." Cannabis was downgraded from Class B to Class C in 2004 by the Government primarily to free police to focus on 'more serious' and harmful drugs such as heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine. As a result of the reclassification, within the first year, arrests for cannabis possession fell by around a third, saving an estimated 199,000 hours of police time, as well as court time. However, in the years that followed there were increasing concerns over the modifications being made to cannabis by criminals, making it stronger and more harmful. A study by King's College of London study, based on a study of 780 people in South London, suggested the risk of psychosis was three times higher for users of the more potent ‘skunk’ cannabis than for non-users. The study found the use of hash, the milder form of the drug, was not associated with increased risk of psychosis. Cannabis was reclassified as a Class B drug in January 2009. It has remained, for many years, the most widely used illegal drug in the UK. Arfon Jones - retired PCC of North Wales and LEAP UK member - told PlymouthLive: "The comments made by Alison Hernandez in support of reclassifying cannabis to Class A is disjointed and draconian and not supported by evidence. History has shown that the current prohibitive stance on drugs has not been effective. Whilst every success against an Organised Crime Group (OCG) is to be welcomed, that success is short lived because the demand inevitably results in another crime group quickly taking hold of the area. "Tackling County Lines is more than dismantling an OCG, it's about safeguarding vulnerable children and young people. These individuals are coerced through violence and intimidation to deal class A substances. "This is a form of modern slavery, yet Alison Hernandez doesn't seem to consider the importance of protecting these vulnerable victims in her comments, instead her focus is on the reclassification of cannabis - which the science of drug harms does not support. "It is concerning that someone in a public office would make such a misleading statement. In 2009, the Labour Government changed the classification of cannabis from Class C to Class B despite advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs stating the harms associated with cannabis do not reach the level of a Class B substance. "This reclassification has not reduced the use of the substance, instead it has seen a substantial increase. Evidence from across the world has shown that the regulation of cannabis does reduce its use. Cannabis was regulated in Colorado with an age restriction being implemented, this has reduced use in the younger age groups. "The debate between Prohibition and Regulation continues, however, evidence has shown that regulation is the only way to succeed in removing the drugs market from organised crime. "Public figures such as Alison Hernandez should only make a call for change if they have the evidence to support their call and stop making misleading claims that can further stigmatise people who may consume different drugs to alcohol.” Jason Reed - co-executive director LEAP UK, told PlymouthLive: "The UK is governed by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, a piece of legislation designed to classify drugs by their scientific harms. Alison Hernandez’s comments completely dismiss this most basic framework of legislation. "The reason we have a perception around cannabis and its harms is almost purely based upon ignorance, predicated by the prohibition of the drug. We’ve had fifty years of the Misuse of Drugs Act and it simply does not work in controlling substances. "There are associative social harms attached to our current approach in trying to prohibit cannabis. We now have crime practices such as 'cuckooing' whereby gangs take over the homes of vulnerable people to grow cannabis crops. We have the advancement of 'County Lines', an evolved method of drug dealing which relies on children and exploitation. Crime always finds a way of creating new markets… just look at prohibition in America in the 1920s. "I also have a personal experience in this field which I have yet to talk about publicly; due to lifelong illness which has left me in constant pain - aside from my role in LEAP UK - from a deeply personal perspective I am a legal cannabis patient. I am under professional clinics and guidance in consuming cannabis. "My knowledge of the drug is perhaps more intimate than most and it’s for this reason I can categorically repudiate Alison Hernandez’s claims around cannabis - to put it simply - she is dangerously off base. If we’re serious about protecting our children and vulnerable then the regulation of cannabis is the way to lessen any associative harms. "We need quality control to ensure we have the right balance in the product. We need consumer education. We need age restrictions, which we can never have in a black market. And we need to separate the market so that organised crime does not control what is already a large industry and allow responsible regulation to take the lead where prohibitions have failed. "As a responsible consumer of cannabis for the betterment of my health, when I read ignorant commentary around cannabis, it only serves to stigmatise people like myself and the thousands of legitimate patients who successfully consume cannabis as a medication. "As it stands, it’s left to organised crime to control the quality, the dosage, and the inhalation advice. Children have ready access to the substance, often consuming potent strains that have not been grown correctly and hastily produced for pure profit motives; there’s no such thing as quality control in a thriving and competitive illegal market. "If we’re serious about lessening the harms of cannabis, then using examples from around the globe - Canada, US, and even now examples such as Germany - we need to reform and regulate. We cannot ban our way out of a problem, which Alison Hernandez naively seems to suggest." https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/call-make-cannabis-class-drug-7526851
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