UK 'DESERVES ITS DRUGS PROBLEM', SAYS UN

BRUSSELS - Cannabis use has turned into a pandemic that is causing
almost as much harm as cocaine or heroin, the head of the United
Nations anti-drugs office says.

He criticised governments, such as the UK's, which have downgraded the
cannabis threat, saying that they have got the "drug problem they deserve".

Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs
and Crime, appealed to European political parties to agree a long-term
strategy for reducing consumption of the drug, which he said was being
used in 2004 by 164 million people worldwide.

As well as being more widespread, the drug is "considerably more
potent" than it was a few decades ago, he said.

Speaking at the launch of the World Drug Report in Washington, Mr
Costa warned: "Policy reversals leave young people confused as to just
how dangerous cannabis is. With cannabis-related health damage
increasing, it is fundamentally wrong for countries to make cannabis
control dependent on which party is in government.

"The cannabis pandemic, like other challenges to public health,
requires consensus, a consistent commitment across the political
spectrum and by society at large. Today, the harmful characteristics
of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other
plant-based drugs such as cocaine and heroin."

In January 2004, when David Blunkett was the UK's Home Secretary,
cannabis was downgraded from class B to class C, meaning that
possession of small quantities of the drug was no longer an arrestable
offence.

The decision was taken on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee
on the Misuse of Drugs.

In 2005, the committee was asked by Mr Blunkett's successor, Charles
Clarke, to review the decision, but it recommended against reversing
it.

Without naming the UK, Mr Costa fired a shot at governments which have
relaxed their cannabis laws.

He said: "After so many years of drug control experience, we now know
that a coherent, long-term strategy can reduce drug supply, demand and
trafficking. If this does not happen, it will be because some nations
fail to take the drug issue sufficiently seriously and pursue
inadequate policies. Many countries have the drug problem they deserve."

His comments were seized on by the Tories.

The shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said: "The Government's
seriously confused course of action on cannabis has led to chaos and
confusion in the enforcement of drug laws. This in turn has led to a
continuing failure to reduce this dangerous threat to lives."

Cocaine use is also on the rise in Europe according to the
UN.

The report estimated there are 3.5 million cocaine users in Europe and
that the trend is rising, especially in the UK and Spain.

Meanwhile, legal loopholes and a surge in internet sales have fuelled
a rise in the use of magic mushrooms, according to a report from the
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

The report warned that, while changes to the law were dampening
demand, they could also prompt an increased use of legal but toxic
alternatives.

Nearly 50 per cent of Britons aged between 15 and 24 have tried magic
mushrooms, surveys found.

The Czech Republic, the Netherlands, France and Belgium have the
highest usage.

The report said: "Since 2001, six EU member states have tightened
their legislation ... New legislation appears to have had an immediate
impact on boththe availability of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the UK.

"[But] the recent prohibition of psilocybin and psilocin-containing
fungiappears to have provoked an emerging interest ofretailers in
alternative, legal, types of hallucinogenic mushroom such as Amanita
muscaria (fly agaric). The active chemicals in these are known to
carry substantial toxicity risks."