British House of Lords to vote on harsher cannabis prohibtion
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 7:55 pm | By: Radical Russ
BBC NEWS | Politics | Peers to vote on cannabis rethink
Peers are being urged to overturn the government’s plan to upgrade cannabis from a class C to a Class B drug.The change is due to come into force in January, reversing Tony Blair’s 2004 downgrading, and raising a maximum jail sentence for possession to five years.
This is despite the Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommendation that cannabis should remain a class C drug.
The government’s reclassification order was made in October but is not due to come into force until 26 January next year.
A letter to the Guardian newspaper, signed by former government chief scientific advisers David King and Lord Robert May, says the drugs classification system must be “credible” and that changing it again would give an “ambiguous message”.
“Cannabis use has fallen in recent years, especially following its downgrading to class C in 2004, and it is obviously unwise to risk reversing that trend.”
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in June that the drug should return to class B because of “uncertainty” over its impact on mental health.
This would lift the maximum prison sentence for possession from two years to five years.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith needs to review the latest research on cannabis and mental health. Researchers in Denmark have found no validity to the idea of “cannabis-induced psychosis” and concluded that schizophrenics whose bad reactions to pot preceded their mental illness “would have developed schizophrenia whether or not they used cannabis.”
Since the UK downgraded cannabis from Class B to Class C, they’ve seen cannabis use drop to the lowest levels in a decade. So, naturally, in the face of such success, they’ve decided to go back to Class B.
Much of this change can be traced to the UK media hyping the threat of “skunk”. Here in America, they’ll call it “bud” or “Pot 2.0″, but the argument is the same: this new super-pot is nothing like what you smoked at Woodstock – it’s addictive and will ruin your kids’ lives! It’s not true, of course. There has always been super-potent pot and potency is irrelevant; if it’s more potent, you just smoke less of it. Increased potency does not change the effect of the cannabis – you still get high – but it just takes less smoking to get there, which is a good thing if you don’t like smoky lungs.
Wouldn’t it be nice if drug policy was based on science and medical observation instead of tabloid headlines and ignorant politicians?
Topics: Britain, Class B, Class C, England, House of Lords, Jacqui Smith, skunk, UK
