WE ALL NEED TO GROW UP A BIT WHEN IT COMES TO DRUGS

In attacking the ABC classification system for controlled drugs, as
it has in its report subtitled Making a Hash of It?, the Commons
select committee on science and technology has shot a sitting duck.
The shortcomings of an arrangement that dates back to James
Callaghan's spell as home secretary have long been evident, and in
recent years the classifications have sunk from disrepute into ridicule.

Only in Whitehall could magic mushrooms, responsible for one death
between 1993 and 2000, occupy the same category as heroin, which was
responsible for 5,737 deaths in the same period. Only in Whitehall
could chewing coca leaves also rank alongside injecting heroin, a
notion which begs the question why Bolivians are not keeling over and
dying en masse. And surely only in Whitehall could a drug be moved
from one class to another, as was the case with "crystal meth",
primarily on the grounds that it was being talked about in the papers
and on television.

The terminal judgement on the uselessness or worse of the ABC system
was probably delivered by the expert witness who informed the
committee: "We do not even know if the public see that if a drug is
in class A, is that more of a deterrent or is it actually an
attraction." If you are an 18-year-old who has just got straight As
in your A-levels, in other words, you might be forgiven for thinking
that only a class A drug would do for the celebrations.

The committee was more than critical of this; it was contemptuous and
vituperative. Rightly so, on the whole: much - including many human
lives - is at stake here, and an indefensible shambles has been
tolerated for far too long. Yet ministers and their advisers are
entitled to some sympathy, for this is a matter that brings out the
worst not only in politicians, but also in the media, which have an
important role, and in the general public.

The whole apparatus would not be necessary, after all, if large
numbers of ordinary people did not insist on putting poisonous
substances into their bodies. From that choice flows all the other
ill-effects of the drug abuse world - family breakdown, social
corrosion, crime and the rest. And people do this not only at
considerable expense, but despite the danger of prosecution and even
imprisonment. Perfectly legal poisons are available in the form of
alcohol and tobacco but no, these are not enough.

The point is not merely facetious. In tackling the drug problem,
ministers are wrestling with the irrational. They are also wrestling
with something that constantly changes: new drugs come along; old
drugs take on new characteristics and medical science occasionally
changes its mind about the threats that are posed. Yet ministers know
that every time they change a classification in the ABC grid there
are consequences which bear no relation to objective scientific or
social judgements-moving cannabis from the B to the C class, for
example, caused hysteria in some quarters, confusion in others, and
may since have proved a mistake on the scientific merits. No wonder
they hesitate.

Both the public and the media need to grow up when it comes to
controlled drugs. This is at least as much a matter of individual
responsibility as it is of public policy, so we must educate
ourselves and our children and we must exercise cool and informed
judgement. Hysteria will not do: greeting an alteration to the
classification system as a "tacit endorsement" of this or that drug,
for example, paralyses efforts to prevent abuse and promote
understanding.

This presupposes that the system itself is credible, and here the
select committee is right: the government needs to start again. More
important than the report's findings on the flawed character of the
ABC system is what it reveals of the flawed character of the entire
process by which the government is advised on these matters. No one
seems to have given this any thought, in fact, since Callaghan, and
the result has been muddle, weakness and a collapse of credibility.
Ministers must create a system that has authority and delivers
information the public can trust.

If they treat us as adults, there is a better chance we will behave
as adults.