Pubdate: Sat, 19 Mar 2005
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

CLARKE ORDERS REVIEW OF BLUNKETT MOVE TO DOWNGRADE CANNABIS

The status of cannabis as a class C drug is under review following alarm in 
the Government at reports that Britain is being "flooded" with forms of the 
drug that are far stronger than the social drug of the 1960s.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, was immediately accused of a drugs 
policy climbdown as he ordered the urgent report yesterday.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said it was a "total humiliation" 
for the Government and amounted to an admission of failure in the 
controversial decision by Mr Clarke's predecessor, David Blunkett, to 
downgrade the classification of the drug from class B to C last year, so 
that police treated its possession as a less serious offence.

The Home Secretary wrote to the chairman of the expert body that 
recommended the changes to the law in 2004 asking it to review evidence of 
new links with mental illness and the problems caused by "skunk", a more 
powerful form of the drug.

Critics of the change in the law, including Kate Hoey, a former minister 
with an inner London seat, said it had led to more drugs on the streets and 
confusion about policing. Sir John Stevens, then the Commissioner of the 
Metropolitan Police, asserted there was "a massive amount of muddle" 
surrounding the changes.

The first sign that Downing Street was ready to order a review of its 
cannabis policy came when Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary and Mr 
Blunkett's predecessor at the Home Office, said at a recent Labour Party 
event: "It was done for good reasons but we may need to rethink if we have 
to review it in the light of experience." Mr Clarke ordered the review in a 
letter to Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the Advisory Council 
for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) who recommended the reclassification of 
cannabis to a class C drug in 2002, which led to the change in the law in 2004.

In the letter to Sir Michael, the head of clinical pharmacology at 
Newcastle University, the Home Secretary said new evidence had been 
produced since the last report on the links between cannabis use and mental 
problems. Mr Clarke cited the report of Professor Jim van Os of Maastricht 
University. "Cannabis use moderately increases the risk of psychotic 
symptoms in young people but has a much stronger effect in those with 
evidence of predisposition for psychosis," it said.

Mr Clarke also asked the ACMD to look into the growing strength of some 
forms of the drug called "skunk". "I am aware the Dutch government is 
taking a particular interest in high-strength strains and are considering 
whether cannabis above a certain strength should be a higher 
classification." The change in the law has led to fewer cannabis users 
being arrested for possessing the drug. It has been mistakenly believed 
that smoking the drug was no longer an offence. But official guidelines 
state that users should be arrested if: the drug is smoked in public or in 
the vicinity of a school; public order is threatened; the person is a 
repeat offender; or is under 17.

Professor Robin Murray, head of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, 
King's College London, claimed that up to 80 per cent of all new psychotic 
cases were reporting a history of cannabis use.

The Government's former "drugs tsar", Keith Hellawell, warned the 
reclassification of cannabis would "encourage ... greater drug taking, 
particularly by young people who don't know where they stand". He said the 
move would "do this generation and the future generation an enormous 
disservice".

Demand for cannabis has exploded in the wake of the relaxation of drugs 
laws, police claim. "We are now recovering tons of the drug at one time and 
that is something we were never doing before. The decision to reclassify 
was wrong," a senior officer connected to the Met's organised crime unit said.

Mr Blunkett said: "I welcome the review which will avoid this important 
issue being misused and will enable a rational and sensible debate to 
continue, informed by the best scientific evidence and advice." Mr Clarke 
was opposed to changes in the drug classification when he was police 
minister at the Home Office.
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