THE OBSERVER PANEL

If the Government Were to Reclassify Drugs, Should Alcohol and
Tobacco Be Included?

Home Office Advisers Have Warned That the Current Drug Classifications
Bear Little Relationship to Their Health Risks

Karol Sikora

Society makes strange rules. Its inconsistencies occur when these
rules are introduced over wide time scales. The logic would classify
tobacco and alcohol in the same bracket as cannabis and some other
recreational drugs but, realistically, it would be impossible to
change things now. Imagine going to the doctor to get a prescription
for a glass of wine. Instead, the current policy of education,
restriction of availability and punitive taxation seems the best way
forward. And maybe we should reconsider a more liberal attitude
towards some recreational drugs.

. Karol Sikora is a cancer specialist

Noreena Hertz

Tobacco is more addictive than heroin. More people die from alcohol
and tobacco-related causes than die from 'illegal' drug use. Yet a
cocaine dealer can be prosecuted for causing a client's death, while
tobacco and alcohol company directors cannot. Incorporating tobacco
and alcohol in the drug classification scheme would help address such
inconsistency. Drug classifications shouldn't just be about helping
the consumer identify the dangers associated with whatever they take.
They should also be about determining what kind of punishment those
who peddle drugs should face.

. Noreena Hertz is an academic

Sarfaraz Manzoor

To reclassify alcohol and tobacco would be pointless. It is obvious
that drinks and cigarettes kill far more people than cocaine and
cannabis, but I do not believe that reclassification would prevent
people from smoking and drinking. If we want to reduce the deaths from
smoking, we need to focus more on ensuring children do not start
smoking. Similarly, with drinking, we have a culture where drinking is
considered social and binge drinking has become commonplace. What is
required is for this culture to be challenged. We need to reclassify
what is seen as normal.

. Sarfraz Manzoor is a writer and broadcaster

Sunder Katwala

The current system is illogical, but a debate is difficult when
shifting cannabis's grade generates a hysterical reaction. Governments
should have two ambitions - to minimise the social harms which arise
from addictive drugs and to warn individuals about harming their
health. As MP John Mann has suggested, these criteria should be at the
heart of classification. Health campaigns, warnings and restrictions
do and should apply to tobacco and alcohol too - and have done much to
reduce the social acceptability of tobacco.

. Sunder Katwala is general secretary of the Fabian Society