A PECULIARLY BRITISH FUDGE

There are two regimes in the world that managed to tackle their drugs
problem - the Taliban's in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein's in Iraq. The
rest of us muddle through. Even David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, sounded
flummoxed on the Today programme yesterday when asked what he would do if
he encountered a group of children smoking a joint. Our position has been a
peculiarly British fudge. Cabinet ministers, school teachers and judges
admit to having smoked dope, yet it is still illegal.

Next week's proposals will confuse matters even further. Cannabis will be
downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug, alongside tranquillisers and
steroids. But, in a sudden panic, the Government has decided that taking
Class C drugs will be an arrestable offence. In a further sign of
nervousness, it has launched a ?1 million campaign warning people that the
drug is still illegal.

Schoolchildren will now receive one message that cannabis is relatively
harmless, and another that they could be banged up for two years for
rolling a joint. This libertarian-authoritarian dance only makes sense if
you're stoned.

So why not legalise cannabis like cigarettes and alcohol? That way Cabinet
ministers could smoke it openly, the Government could get its hands on
another tax and consumers would be allowed to decide on whether they
thought its pleasurable sides outweighed its risks.

It all depends on whether you see cannabis as a vice similar to whisky,
doughnuts or a packet of Marlboro Lights. Do you think it's a harmless -
hangover-free - way of adding enjoyment to a Disney cartoon, a way of
taking your mind off your homework or of unwinding when the children have
gone to bed? Or do you think it can, in some cases, cause serious harm?

One in four 15-to 24-year-olds smoked it in 2002, according to the British
Crime Survey. You don't see thousands of zombified teenagers on the
streets. But the evidence on health risks is mounting.

For years, there has been anecdotal evidence that cannabis can cause
psychosis. Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health
organisation Sane, once told me that in 16 years of meeting families who
have lost a child to schizophrenia: "I can think of maybe two exceptions
where cannabis was not involved in either the initial breakdown or in a
relapse.''

Recent research backs this up. Yale Medical School, after an extensive
study, showed that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in
cannabis, can produce a psychotic reaction.

Hamish Turner, president of the Coroners' Society, says that cannabis is
increasingly the factor behind deaths recorded as accidents or suicides.
Prof Robin Murray, head of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, has
said that cannabis users are seven times more likely to develop mental
illness. The British Medical Association said it was very worried about the
negative health effects of the drug.

Parents instinctively don't want their children to become dopeheads, even
if they smoked it themselves. Discovering their 10u2011yearu2011old smoking
his first cigarette in his bedroom is not as worrying as finding a lump of
hash in his jeans. There is also the fear, as with the MMR jab, that your
child might be the one who reacts adversely and is harmed for life. Sue
Arnold, the journalist who spearheaded the campaign to legalise cannabis in
the 1990s, changed her mind when her son, a cannabis smoker, became psychotic.

The Secondary Heads Association, which represents more than 4,000 schools,
advises suspension for pupils caught more than once smoking cannabis. The
majority of its members believe that regular cannabis use is more harmful
to students' prospects than smoking or drinking.

I changed my mind before I had children. For most of my schoolfriends it
was a harmless alternative to the pub. Yet one of them is still being
treated for schizophrenia after becoming paranoid taking cannabis;
another's family believe it contributed to his suicide. They were furious
to read on a government website that "Cannabis psychosis is rare but
treatable." It's not just the young who are affected. The man who recently
shot dead his neighbour over a disputed hedge, and then killed himself, was
said by the coroner to be a regular cannabis user.

What about the differing strengths of cannabis? According to toxicology
expert Prof John Henry of St Mary's Hospital, until the early 1990s, there
was less than one per cent of THC in most cannabis. Now the most potent
form, skunk, taken by a third of users, contains up to 30 per cent.

Legalisers say that by criminalising cannabis you are introducing young
users to heroin pushers. If you could buy cannabis over the counter, you
could control the quality and cut out the illegal suppliers. But if it
became easier to acquire, more people would smoke it regularly, and so
might suffer more mental health problems. And unless you legalised all
drugs, young people in search of an illegal thrill would be pushed farther
up the drug chain. Black market gangs could still undercut licensed outlets
and supply under-age users with untaxed cannabis.

A friend who was brought up in Holland believes they lost a generation when
they relaxed their cannabis rules 26 years ago. Use of cannabis among
children doubled between 1988 and 1999 before settling down. "We were
smoking cannabis with our hot chocolate for breakfast," she says.

Unlike with identity cards, the Home Office is not being pressurised by
other countries to relax its rules. In Sweden, where the government
toughened its line towards cannabis - after deciding that it carried more
mental health risks than heroin abuse - drug deaths have dropped for the
first time since 1990.

Cannabis has muddled minds at Westminster. The new position is the worst of
all worlds. No one knows where they stand - not the police, nor schools nor
students. Meanwhile the people who suffer most ­ the addicts and their
families ­ are paying for this Government's delusions.