MPS CALL FOR DRUGS TO BE CLASSIFIED ON BASIS OF RISKS

Members Of Parliament Say Drugs Classification System Must Be
Scrapped

MPs Call On System Based On Scientific Assesment Of Risk To Health

Government Drug Advisors Criticised For 'Dereliction Of Duty' On Drug
Ratings

THE system for classifying controlled drugs is based on "ad hockery
and conservatism" and must be scrapped, according to an influential
group of MPs.

A new scale should be introduced which rates substances purely on the
basis of health and social risks and is not linked to potential
punishments, according to the Science and Technology Committee.

Alcohol and tobacco should also be included in the ratings to give the
public a "better sense of the relative harms involved".

The MPs reached their conclusions in an in-depth report on the
classification of drugs.

Controlled drugs are currently put into alphabetical categories which
reflect the level of penalties offences such as possession and dealing
can attract. The highest class, A, contains substances such as heroin,
cocaine, ecstasy and magic mushrooms, while class B includes speed and
barbiturates and class C cannabis and some tranquillisers.

The committee said police saw the classification system as of "little
importance" at present, and urged a "decoupling" of penalties and the
harm ranking of drugs.

It criticised the government's approach to classifications as "opaque"
and said reviews seemed to be launched "as knee-jerk responses to
media storms".

The system needed to be more "responsive" when new evidence concerning
the risks of particular substances was brought to light, the report
added.

MPs denounced the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs - which
provides scientific guidance to the government - for "dereliction of
duty" in failing to alert ministers of "serious flaws" in the rating
system.