DESPITE the claim of Graham Ball, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
did introduce distinctions between cannabis and narcotics, as
proposed in the Wootton Report. The Crossman Diaries notes that
the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, was outvoted in Cabinet on
this issue. Callaghan introduced the Misuse of Drugs Bill, which
was reintroduced by the incoming Tory government.

This legislation did not, as claimed, increase the penalties for
possession of cannabis. It reduced the penalties by 50 per cent.
A detailed history of cannabis law reform can be found in my
article, The Wootton Retort: The Decriminalisation of Cannabis in
Britain, which is on the Internet at
http:///www.drugtext.nl/articles/WRaltnet.html.

Stephen Abrams