AT LAST, A STATEMENT OF THE OBVIOUS ABOUT CANNABIS

The film of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone had more advance
publicity than yesterday's report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse
of Drugs, but not much more. David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said he
was "minded" to downgrade cannabis from class B to class C last year, so
the council's conclusion, that the harmful effects of cannabis were "very
substantially less" than those of other class B drugs, should not have come
as a surprise.

All the same, it is striking to read, after decades in which governments
have been in denial, the plain statements that cannabis "is not associated
with major health problems for the individual or society", and that it is
less addictive than tobacco or alcohol.

This official confirmation of what anyone who cared to find out already
knew is no cause for triumphalism, however. Satisfaction at the quiet
dropping of the rhetoric of the "war on drugs" is justified, as is relief
that the light of common sense has been let into one large dungeon of
irrational public policy. But the problems that British society currently
faces with other drugs - including, of course, alcohol - are so serious
that any form of complacency is misplaced.

The question now is whether Mr Blunkett is prepared to use the fact that
civilisation will survive the reclassifying of cannabis to reorder
priorities elsewhere. A pragmatic approach towards other drugs that are not
in themselves a threat to society might allow policy to focus on the ones
that are really dangerous. Testing of ecstasy for purity ought to be
encouraged. Heroin addiction should be treated as a medical issue rather
than a criminal one, and we should return to a policy of prescribing heroin
to addicts in exchange for co-operation with treatment.

That would enable policy to be targeted with more precision on the real
problem areas, crack cocaine and ketamine, the increasingly popular "club"
drug that provides temporary oblivion. Crack, an addictive stimulant often
associated with violent behaviour, is implicated in the recent rise in
street crime - but, again, should be approached as part of a set of social
problems rather than simply as a form of crime to be stamped out.

At last, however, the confusion, fear and ignorance promoted by lumping all
illegal drugs into one antisocial mass is beginning to be broken down. That
can only be a step in the right direction.