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UK set to class cannabis among least harmful drugs
Publication date: March 14, 2002
Source: Reuters
Author: Kate Kelland
LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - Medical experts gave the go-ahead on
Thursday
for Britain to reclassify cannabis as low-risk in the latest in a series
of
moves relaxing attitudes towards soft drugs.
In a report to Home Secretary David Blunkett, medical experts from the
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said all cannabis
preparations
should be downgraded to Class C -- the lowest risk grouping of
controlled
drugs. Classifying it as any higher risk was "disproportionate," the
report
said.
The downgrade would put cannabis, which the government estimates was
used by
more than 1.5 million 16- to 24-year-olds in Britain last year, in the
same
category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones.
The government stressed it had no plans to decriminalise cannabis and
had
made no final decisions on whether to reclassify the drug.
But it pointed to comments by Blunkett in October proposing the
downgrading
of cannabis to Class C from Class B -- a category which includes
amphetamines
-- and the removal of police powers of arrest for possession of small
amounts
of cannabis.
"We do not believe it would be right to decriminalise or legalise
cannabis,"
a government spokesman said. "At the same time we do have to recognise
that
there is a need to refocus police effort on Class A drugs."
He said Class A drugs -- the most harmful category including ecstasy,
cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin -- accounted for 99 percent of "the
cost to
society of drug use."
Researchers said on Wednesday that relaxing British cannabis laws could
save
around 50 million pounds ($71 million) a year and free up the equivalent
of
500 police officers.
A study by the South Bank University's Criminal Policy Research Unit
found
that around 69,000 people were cautioned or convicted for cannabis
possession
in 1999, with police spending an average of four hours on each offence.
With most police officers operating in pairs, the study said 770,000
officer
hours, or the time of 500 officers a year, were spent processing
cannabis
offences.
Government data show the use of cannabis has increased dramatically over
the
past two decades. Long-term use of the drug among people aged between 20
to
24 in England and Wales rose from 12 percent in 1981 to 52 percent in
2000.
The government has also said it will decide by 2004-2005 whether to
license
cannabis-based products for medical use.
Patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) and other forms of
severe
pain have long been campaigning for the right to use legally prescribed
cannabis-based drugs to help ease pain.
10:02 03-14-02
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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