DRUGS COUNCIL URGES CANNABIS LAW CHANGE

The Government was today urged to take a step towards downgrading
cannabis after a Home Office-commissioned report said the current
classification was not appropriate.

Medical experts from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
(ACMD) recommended that cannabis be reclassified from a class B
narcotic to a class C.

They said that although cannabis was still harmful, the current
classification was "disproportionate" to its risks to health and to
other drugs in the same category, such as amphetamines.

The Home Office said a decision about whether to adopt the proposals
would be made after consideration of a pilot project in Lambeth, South
London, and a Home Affairs select committee inquiry into the drugs
strategy.

Both are expected to report by Easter. However, the charity DrugScope
welcomed the report as a step towards a more "logical and pragmatic"
drugs policy.

But Paul Betts, the father of ecstasy victim Leah Betts and now a
drugs awareness campaigner, said it was the start of the "slippery
slope" towards decriminalisation.

The report found that the use of cannabis, which has increased
dramatically over the last 20 years, was not associated with major
health problems and occasional use only rarely leads to significant
problems in healthy people.

Experts said the drug's harmful effects were "very substantially less"
than those associated with similar use of other class B drugs.
However, even occasional use can pose significant dangers for people
with heart or circulation problems and for those with mental health
disorders such as schizophrenia.

But both groups are at much more significant risk from amphetamines,
the report stated.

The panel said it was not possible to say whether cannabis use led to
dependence or a progression to harder drugs.

But they said that despite posing fewer risks than alcohol or tobacco
use, it was less harmful than other class B substances.

The report stated: "The continuing juxtaposition of cannabis, with
these more harmful Class B drugs, erroneously (and dangerously)
suggests that their harmful effects are equivalent.

"The Council therefore recommends the reclassification of all
cannabis preparations, to Class C, under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act."