UK SET TO CLASS CANNABIS AMONG LEAST HARMFUL DRUGS

LONDON (Reuters) - Medical experts gave the go-ahead Thursday for Britain
to reclassify cannabis as low-risk in the latest in a series of moves
relaxing attitudes toward soft drugs.

In a report to Home Secretary David Blunkett, medical experts from the
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said all cannabis preparations
should be downgraded to Class C -- the lowest risk grouping of controlled
drugs. Classifying it as any higher risk was "disproportionate," the report
said.

The downgrade would put cannabis, which the government estimates was used
by more than 1.5 million 16- to 24-year-olds in Britain last year, in the
same category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones.

The government stressed it had no plans to decriminalize cannabis and had
made no final decisions on whether to reclassify the drug.

But it pointed to comments by Blunkett in October proposing the downgrading
of cannabis to Class C from Class B -- a category which includes
amphetamines -- and the removal of police powers of arrest for possession
of small amounts of cannabis.

"We do not believe it would be right to decriminalize or legalize
cannabis," a government spokesman said. "At the same time we do have to
recognize that there is a need to refocus police effort on Class A drugs."

He said Class A drugs -- the most harmful category including ecstasy,
cocaine and heroin -- accounted for 99 percent of "the cost to society of
drug use."

Researchers said Wednesday that relaxing British cannabis laws could save
around 50 million pounds ($71 million) a year and free up the equivalent of
500 police officers.

A study by the South Bank University's Criminal Policy Research Unit found
that around 69,000 people were cautioned or convicted for cannabis
possession in 1999, with police spending an average of four hours on each
offense.

With most police officers operating in pairs, the study said 770,000
officer hours, or the time of 500 officers a year, were spent processing
cannabis offenses.

Government data show the use of cannabis has increased dramatically over
the past two decades. Long-term use of the drug among people aged between
20 to 24 in England and Wales rose from 12 percent in 1981 to 52 percent in
2000.

The government has also said it will decide by 2004-2005 whether to license
cannabis-based products for medical use.

Patients suffering from multiple sclerosis and other forms of severe pain
have long been campaigning for the right to use legally prescribed
cannabis-based drugs to help ease pain.