GOVERNMENT ADS AIM TO END CONFUSION

One simple message: law is being relaxed but drug is still harmful and
remains illegal

Alan Travis, home affairs editor The Guardian

A big government advertising campaign to dispel the confusion
surrounding the change in cannabis laws and targeted to reach more than
80% of Britain's teenagers was launched by the Home Office yesterday.

Radio advertisements will be carried on 48 national and regional
stations in England over the next week promoting the "one simple
message" that although the cannabis laws are being relaxed next week
it is still a harmful drug that remains illegal.

Separate campaigns will run in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland.

They will [be] backed up by the distribution of more than 2.5m leaflets
explaining the impact of moving cannabis from class B to class C in
the schedule of illegal drugs.

The initiative will be accompanied by a police campaign to promote a
similar message to adults and an internal police campaign to ensure
that all officers are aware of the changes in the law.

Police advertisements setting out the change in the law as it affects
adults are to appear in the Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph,
Guardian and News of the World.

The Home Office drugs minister, Caroline Flint, said that the radio
ads and the leaflets had been months in the making.

"They have been fully researched and tested with young people to make
sure the message is both effective and credible to our target
audience," she said. "We are beginning the drive a week before
reclassification to make sure it has the greatest impact.

"It is particularly important that we get the message across to young
people that cannabis remains illegal and that under 18s will still be
arrested for possession.

"Using the radio ads alone we expect to reach 81% of 15- to
17-year-olds and 41% of adults."

The home secretary, David Blunkett, defended the decision to
reclassify cannabis, saying there was little point in pretending to
young people that it was as dangerous as crack cocaine and heroin.

The change, which comes into effect next Thursday, was first
recommended by the government's advisory committee on drug abuse more
than 20 years ago.

Mr Blunkett dismissed criticism earlier this week from the British
Medical Association which said that chronic cannabis smoking can
increase the likelihood of heart disease, lung cancer, bronchitis and
emphysema.

The home secretary claimed this was a complete reversal of the BMA
welcome that greeted his announcement two years ago that the law would
be relaxed.

He insisted that the government was not sending out a confused
message.

He said: "I want a transparent, non-variable, understandable policy
across the country, where we as politicians take hands-on
responsibility for the decisions about classification, and therefore
the response, whether the police go for class A dangerous drug pushers
and users that kill or whether we go for small possession of cannabis."

He said the new policy would mean clarification of the law across the
country rather than the current situation where individual forces
adopted policies towards cannabis possession.

"It is also important that we respond to the cry from some families of
drug users who said to me that if you confuse our children by saying
pretty much that cannabis is the same as crack or heroin, when they
take cannabis and find out it isn't, they don't believe the message
when they go on to heroin and crack."

The British Lung Foundation said it welcomed the government's
advertising campaign on reclassification, but also reminded people of
the health risks involved.

Its chief executive, Dame Helena Shovelton, said: "Research carried
out by the charity found that smoking cannabis alone can cause severe
lung damage.

"We understand that some people with long-term chronic conditions may
smoke cannabis for medicinal purposes, but it is vital that people are
fully aware of the dangers."

Learning a lesson

* From next Thursday cannabis will be reclassified as a class C drug,
which covers the least harmful of the illegal drugs, including GHB,
anabolic steroids and tranquillisers such as Valium.

* It will remain illegal to have, give away or deal in cannabis.
Possession with intent to supply is also illegal, as is growing
cannabis plants. Dealing and possessing with intent to supply will
still carry a 14-year maximum sentence plus an unlimited fine.

* The penalties for possession are changing. The maximum prison
sentence is being reduced from five years to two. New police guidelines
will mean that what happens to most of the 90,000 people a year who are
currently arrested for cannabis possession will change.

* If you are over 18 and the police find you with cannabis it is likely
that it will be confiscated and you will be warned. But if you are
smoking a joint in a public place, or near where there are children,
such as a school, or where public order is at risk, you will be
arrested and possibly fined. Those repeatedly arrested for cannabis
offences will be prosecuted.

* If you are under 18 and it is your first offence of cannabis
possession you will normally be arrested, taken to a police station and
given a warning or reprimand. But if you have been caught before, you
will either be given a final warning or be charged. When you get a
warning you are referred to the local youth offending team.

* It remains illegal to pass drugs among friends or allow people to
smoke cannabis in your home; and if you are caught smoking cannabis in
a club the police will have the power to prosecute the landlord or the
club owner.