EXAGGERATED CLAIMS ARE NO BASIS FOR POLICY

Gordon Brown has made his position on cannabis crystal clear but, if
the reports are right, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is
not minded to take the hint. Nor should it.

This is a political row fuelled by the Prime Minister's anxiety to
pacify Middle England. There is a widespread, but mistaken, belief
that the country is in the grip of an epidemic of cannabis-induced
psychosis. This is based on the conviction that the cannabis sold on
the streets is a lot stronger than it was a generation ago and is
tipping some people into schizophrenia.

The council's review of the scientific evidence underpinning the
classification of cannabis is the second in two years. Mr Brown
ordered it as a means of distancing himself from his predecessor and
has said he would like to see the decision to downgrade the drug to
class C reversed.

That decision, taken by David Blunkett in 2004 when he was Home
Secretary, was meant to free up police time squandered on prosecuting
users. Mr Brown believes it sent the wrong message to young people.
Yet use of the drug has fallen since it was downgraded.

Fears about the drug have been fuelled by reports that some of the
"skunk" on sale is up to 30 times stronger than ordinary cannabis.
Skunk actually contains 10 to 14 per cent of tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) compared with 2 to 4 per cent in herbal cannabis.

Claims about the dangers of cannabis are also exaggerated. An
estimated 80 per cent of people with schizophrenia smoke cannabis.
Many mental patients self-medicate with cannabis, which can aggravate
their symptoms. But this is different from saying cannabis causes
schizophrenia. In its last review in early 2006, the advisory council
concluded: "The evidence suggests, at worst, that using cannabis
increases the lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia by less than
1 per cent."

Some scientists, notably Professor Robin Murray of the Institute of
Psychiatry, have argued this underplays the risks to a small minority
who are prone to paranoid thoughts. But according to reports,
research from Keele University found that rising cannabis use over
the past 30 years had not been accompanied by a rise in schizophrenia.

That suggests there is no scientific basis for altering the council's
2006 conclusion that cannabis is "substantially" less harmful than
the Class B drugs amphetamines and barbiturates. If the
classification system is to retain its proportionality, it follows
that cannabis should remain in Class C.

Drug and mental health charities say the law is too blunt an
instrument to deliver the public health warnings about the risks of
cannabis that young people need to hear. The council is right to
resist ministerial pressure. It should stick to its guns.