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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cannabis a step closer to downgrading
Nick Allen and Phil Hazlewood Press and Journal, Aberdeen
Friday 15 Mar 2002 MEDICAL experts cleared the way yesterday for Home Secretary David Blunkett to in-troduce the first relaxation of British drug laws for 30 years. Following a five-month re-view; the influential Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recommended that cannabis should be downgraded to a class-C drug, putting it in the same category as steroids and prescription tranquillisers such as Valium. It would mean possession of small amounts would no longer be an arrestable offence, al-though cannabis would not be decriminalised officially. When Mr Blunkett asked the ACMD to review the status of cannabis in October last year, he said he was 'minded' to re-classify but he wanted to hear from the experts. Their verdict, which was never seriously in doubt, brings reclassification a significant step closer. It would be a remarkable turnaround for Labour, which came to power in 1997 promis-ing "zero tolerance" on drugs. The Government is keen to show that it is relying on the best scientific, medical and police advice to make the de-cision and Mr Blunkett still wants to wait for the conclusion of a Commons home affairs select committee inquiry on drugs strategy before making his announcement. He is also waiting for an. evaluation of the policing pilot scheme in Lambeth, south Lon-don, that began in July last year. There, people found with small amounts of cannabis are not prosecuted. This means any announce-ment by Mr Blunkett on re-classification will have to wait until summer at the earliest. It was announced last month that the Government's clinical watchdog is to study the medical use of cannabis in a move that could see the drug prescribed as a painkiller on the NHS within two years. Health Minister Lord Hunt said then that the use of cannabis derivatives to relieve pain in multiple sclerosis suf-ferers and post-operative patients was being referred to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence. In yesterday's report, the ACMD advised that cannabis "is not associated with major health problems for the indi-vidual or society". It said the current classi-fication as a class-B drug was "disproportionate in relation both to its inherent harmfulness and to the harmfulness of other substances such as am-phetamines, that are currently in class B". But it also advised that cannabis was "unquestion-ably harmful". Occasional use of cannabis did pose significant dangers for people with 'heart or circulation disorders' or mental-health problems such as schizophrenia, but all were at much greater risk from amphetamines. Regular heavy use of cannabis could result in dependence, but the potential for that was sub-stantially less than was the case with amphetamines, tobacco and alcohol, the report said. It was not possible to state with certainty whether cannabis use predisposed users to de-pendence on class-A drugs. Roger Howard, chief exec-utive of DrugScope, welcomed the announcement, saying: "It is refreshing to have a Home Sec-retary who is at last willing to open up the debate on drugs." But it was criticised by Paul Betts, the father of Ecstasy vic-tim Leah Betts, who said the Government had reneged on its promises to be hard on drugs. "This has just proved they are liars," he said. 'This is the start of the slippery slope." Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith attacked plans to down-grade cannabis as an ill-thought-out way to tackle a complex issue. A spokeswoman for the British Lung Foundation said: "It isn't clear that smoking cannabis is less dangerous to lung health than smoking to-bacco and we would be failing young people if we tell them that it is without being sure."
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