CANNABIS AND THE CLOUDS OF CONFUSION

Of all the "reviews" announced by Gordon Brown when he became Prime
Minister last summer - from super-casinos to licensing laws - the
inquiry into the re-classification of cannabis was one of the most cynical.

The right-wing press had been demanding for some time that the drug
be elevated into the more serious category of narcotics. And so,
despite the fact that the Government had downgraded cannabis to Class
C only three years before, and despite the absence of any irrefutable
evidence to support the assertions about its effect on mental health,
Mr Brown gave the populist media what they wanted; or at least held
out the prospect of it, by asking the Advisory Council on the Misuse
of Drugs - the official body which advises the Government on such
matters - to review the legal status of cannabis.

The council now seems to have returned the wrong answer. A leaked
report suggests it has decided that cannabis should, in fact, remain
a class C drug. It has reportedly looked into the research again and
found no new evidence to support the theory that cannabis use has
resulted in an increase in the incidence of schizophrenia. And yet we
are told that Mr Brown is still minded to re-classify the drug. In
which case, the leaking of the advisory council's opinion serves a
useful purpose.

We now know that, if the Prime Minister announces a reclassification
of cannabis in the next few weeks, he will have stubbornly decided to
privilege prejudice and political calculation over expert advice and
scientific evidence.