GOING TO POT?

Reclassifying Cannabis Isn't Enough To Break The Link To Hard
Drugs

The great cannabis debate has been reignited in Britain by a
government proposal to reclassify weed as a "softer" drug. If it's
passed, Britain will be become one of many countries that are reducing
the penalties for cannabis use.

So is this move part of a dangerous liberal trend that will lead to an
explosion in the use of cannabis and other, more dangerous drugs? Or
is it a long overdue step that does not go far enough towards breaking
the link between marijuana, hard drugs and crime?

In Britain's three-tier classification system, cannabis is currently
in Class B, along with amphetamines - a position that many argue is
out of keeping with the danger it poses. The proposal is to reduce it
to Class C, along with drugs such as anabolic steroids. This would
mean milder penalties for possession, although it falls short of
legalisation or decriminalisation.

Supporters of the scheme argue that it will free up police to tackle
more dangerous drugs such as crack. In 1999, nearly 70 per cent of
people arrested for drugs offences in Britain were charged with
possession of cannabis. Processing each offender can take a police
officer up to three hours.

What's more, figures from last year's British Crime Survey show that
44 per cent of 16 to 29-year-olds have tried cannabis at some point in
their lives, with 22 per cent having used it in the last year. Clearly
the law isn't holding everybody back. But will relaxing the law
increase its use?

The evidence from countries that have gone even further than Britain
proposes to is clear. In the Netherlands, where authorities have
tolerated cannabis use since the 1970s, there has been no significant
increase in use (New Scientist, 21 February 1998, p 30).

In South Australia, where users face civil sanctions such as fines
rather than criminal penalties, there has been a small rise. But
surveys by the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse between 1985 and
1993 showed that the rise was in line with that in states where use
was still criminalised.

Results were similar during the temporary decriminalisation of pot in
11 US states in the 1970s. It seems that cannabis consumption has more
to do with individual tastes and popular culture than the law. Or
maybe lax policing means that changing the law makes little difference.

So reclassification is unlikely to result in an explosion of teenage
potheads. What it could do is make youngsters more likely to trust the
drugs information given by authorities. If those who take cannabis
believe its legal status exaggerates the risks, they may be more
likely to try more dangerous drugs.

For this reason, several drugs charities have welcomed the
reclassification proposal. "Young people in particular may be less
inclined to try other substances if they have more accurate
information on the potential risks of each one," says Roger Howard,
chief executive of the charity DrugScope.

But does cannabis lead to hard drugs regardless of what information is
given? "Ecstasy killed my teenage daughter but her death began with
that first cannabis joint," screamed a typical headline in one British
tabloid last week.

A study published last year revealed that 99 per cent of young New
Zealanders who took hard drugs had started on cannabis. The link is
undeniable, but it's not clear if cannabis really is a "gateway to
hard drugs" or whether the kind of people who take dope are more
likely to try hard drugs too.

"I'm standing in the middle of the road on this debate," says David
Fergusson of the Christchurch School of Medicine, who led the New
Zealand study. His group actually set out to prove that progression to
hard drugs is the result of people's personalities and peer group
rather than the fact that they use cannabis. But they weren't able
to.

They followed 1265 New Zealanders from birth to the age of 21,
gathering detailed information on their background and behaviour. They
found that 70 per cent of the group had tried cannabis, and a quarter
had tried other drugs. Although two-thirds of cannabis users did not
progress to other illicit drugs, nearly all hard-drug users started
off on cannabis. And heavy cannabis users were most at risk.

Even when Fergusson took account of confounding factors, he found that
there was still a link between heavy cannabis use and progression to
harder drugs. "We have probably made the strongest effort anyone has
made, but we cannot explain [the correlation] away," says Fergusson.

So what is the connection, if any? The most obvious link is that many
cannabis users are in regular contact with drug dealers who can make
more money from drugs such as cocaine than from dope. "We need to
consider the options available to us regarding supply," says Howard.

The experience in the Netherlands, where allowing "coffee shops" to
sell small amounts of dope means users don't usually come into contact
with illegal dealers, suggests this does make some difference.
According to an analysis published in Science in 1997, only 22 per
cent of cannabis smokers in Amsterdam have tried cocaine, compared
with 33 per cent of those in the US.

So trying to separate the markets for cannabis and hard drugs such as
cocaine does appear to weaken the gateway effect. "But whether you can
separate them or not is a big question," says Michael Farrell, a
consultant psychiatrist at the National Addiction Centre in London.