Cannabis goes back to Class B despite drug experts’ verdict - Times Online
Cannabis will be upgraded to a Class B drug next year even though the head of the Government’s advisory body says that the change is neither warranted nor likely to achieve the desired effect.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, announced the reversal yesterday of the Government’s earlier decision to downgrade the drug. But under18s caught with it will not be treated any more harshly, to avoid criminalising them.

Punishment for the over18s will increase from the existing “confiscate and warning” for a first offence to a possible penalty notice for disorder on a second offence followed by arrest and prosecution for a third offence.

Although the new jail term for possession rises from two to five years, it is unlikely that anyone will be imprisoned for simple possession of cannabis for personal use.

Reclassification will not take effect until early next year because Parliament has to approve the decision.

A report from the advisory council concluded that the health dangers from cannabis did not justify its inclusion in the higher category and that it should remain a Class C drug. Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the council, said: “Changing the classification of cannabis is neither warranted nor will it achieve the desired effect.”

Ms Smith said that the Government was overruling the council because she was unwilling to “risk the future health of young people”. She told MPs: “Where there is a clear and serious problem, but doubt about the harm that will be caused, we must err on the side of caution and protect the public. I make no apology for that – I am not prepared to wait and see.”

The Home Secretary said she was concerned about the mental health effects of smoking super-strength skunk cannabis, which now accounts for 81 per cent of cannabis seized on the streets. There were also suggestions that young people were “binge smoking” to get the maximum high.

The reefer madness of Gordon Brown continues.  The public health and law enforcement experts on the prime minister’s advisory body voted 20-3 that cannabis should remain in the lowest classification of drugs - Class C - and that Britons should not be arrested for its possession.

But politicians love to look “tough on crime” and by treating cannabis use as a crime, they can score easy points in the political arena, despite the overwhelming evidence that cannabis use is not a serious social problem and what few problems it does present are best treated in a public health model, not a criminal justice one.

Jacqui Smith says we can’t afford to “wait and see”, yet since cannabis has been downgraded from Class B to Class C, we’ve found that cannabis use has gone down in the UK.  Furthermore, cannabis has been in widespread use since the 1960s - how much longer does Ms Smith need to wait and see?

This is driven in the UK by the tabloid headlines of the dreaded “skunk” cannabis, otherwise known by realists as “quality marijuana”.  They trumpet false stats like “skunk is 30 times more potent than regular cannabis”.  Since “skunk” tests out at about 12%-14% THC, then they must consider hemp rope to be “regular cannabis”.  Actually, “regular cannabis” tests out to 7%-10% THC, so maybe it is at most twice as potent.

However, as we all know, more potent cannabis does not equal more public danger.  Cannabis is non-toxic, so smoking more of the more potent varieties isn’t going to cause any more physical harm.  Cannabis is self-titrating, which means users smoke to get high, and if the cannabis is more potent, they just smoke less of it to get high.  Considering that inhaling the smoke of burning vegetable matter of any kind isn’t the nicest thing for your lungs, smoking less of it is probably a good thing.

We here at NORML call on all our friends in the United Kingdom to call your member of Parliament and tell them to vote no on the upgrade of cannabis from Class C to Class B.

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-04-09

Wednesday is Cannabis Science day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re separating the stems of propaganda from the buds of truth with Dr. Mitch Earleywine. Today Dr. Mitch has a message for the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, who is considering upgrading the classification of cannabis from a fine-only drug to one that can get you arrested, despite his panel of experts recommending against it.

Cannabis Karri is back for our musical break this hempday humpday with some reggae from a group called “Pirate Radio”. The song is called “The Dread Pirate Roberts”, and it just makes me wonder if one of the band members isn’t named “Inigo Montoya”.

Then we wrap things up with Mike Gray of Common Sense for Drug Policy, the acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter and author of Drug Crazy. Mike is promoting a new educational DVD entitled Clergy Speak Out on the War on Drugs and it is a powerful look at the rabbis, priests, and ministers who work on the front lines of the drug war every day and deal with the people left hopeless by addiction.

So welcome to the show, grab your best glass and sit back with your favorite strain… This is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.

Gordon Brown is facing a dilemma over whether to overrule his own panel of experts and increase the penalties for being caught in possession of cannabis.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is understood to have decided at a private meeting that it will not recommend tightening the law on the drug.

The decision presents a potential embarrassment for the Prime Minister, who earlier this week said that he regarded cannabis use as not just illegal but also unacceptable.

It is understood that 20 out of the panel’s 23 experts decided on Wednesday that there was not sufficient new scientific evidence to justify a change.

If Mr Brown decides to press ahead with reclassification, he will risk becoming only the second Prime Minister to over-rule the council, which is a statutory non-departmental public body dating from 1971.

The Government reclassified cannabis as a Class C substance - dropping the penalty for possession from five to two years in jail - in 2004.

Since then it has reviewed the decision twice, in 2005 and 2008.

Conservative leader David Cameron said: “There are all sorts of cannabis on the streets today. Skunk and super skunk are incredibly powerful and can lead to people having all sorts of mental health problems.”

The mental health charity Rethink, which gave evidence to the committee, said Mr Brown should heed the committee’s advice.

Paul Corry, a spokesman, said: “Gordon Brown should put aside his personal views on cannabis and accept the fact that it does not make sense to reclassify.

“Use of the drug has gone down since it was downgraded in 2004 and research by Rethink shows that only 3 per cent of users would consider stopping on the grounds of illegality.”

The committee is understood to have concluded there was no need re-classify after new research found no evidence that rising cannabis use in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s had led to increases in schizophrenia.

This is despite many reports pointing to a links between super-strength skunk cannabis, which accounts for 80 per cent of street cannabis, and mental illnesses such as schizoprenia and psychosis.

The prime minister and the conservatives are completely in the grips of reefer madness.  The media in the UK flood the airwaves and newsstands with scare stories of the dreaded “super skunk” causing violent psychosis and schizophrenia, stories that would make American 20th century prohibitionists Harry J. Anslinger and William Randolph Hearst proud.

The reason 20 of 23 of the experts on Brown’s committee on misuse of drugs recommend against upgrading cannabis to a higher class of dangerous drugs is because they pay attention to the science, not the lurid British tabloids that want to peddle reefer madness stories to sell copy and suck up to the conservative government.

Next Wednesday, I’ll discuss this story with Dr. Mitch Earleywine, who has all of the science on these reports of “super skunk” in the UK.  Meanwhile, if there are any tokin’ Tories, sinsemilla subjects, or bong-hittin Britons who want to weigh in on cannabis culture across the pond and the crazy reefer madness in the media,  please email me at stash ‘at’ norml.org.