Pubdate: Sat, 19 Mar 2005
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Alexandra Frean and Nigel Hawkes
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

CANNABIS DANGERS PROMPT REVIEW OF 'SOFT' LAW

THE Government is to review its decision to downgrade cannabis after 
mounting scientific evidence that the drug could be more harmful than thought.

Charles Clarke ordered the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs last 
night to review its conclusion that high cannabis use was not associated 
with health problems.

The councils findings were the basis for a Home Office decision to 
downgrade cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C from January 2004, which 
meant that possession was no longer an arrestable offence.

In a letter to Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, the council chairman, the 
Home Secretary noted that two recent studies had linked cannabis with 
increased mental health problems.

One, by Professor Jim van Os, of Maastricht University, in 2004, concluded: 
Cannabis use moderately increases the risk of psychotic symptoms in young 
people but has a much stronger effect in those with . . . predisposition 
for psychosis.

The study of 2,437 people aged between 14 and 24 found that half of those 
who were psychologically vulnerable and smoked cannabis developed psychotic 
symptoms over a four-year period. This was twice the rate among those who 
did not use cannabis.

In his letter, Mr Clarke implies that the findings have emerged since 
cannabis was reclassified. The two studies that he refers to are new, but 
both authors have been publishing similar findings for several years.

The second study is by Professor David Fergusson, of the University of 
Otago, who collected data over 25 years on a group of 1,055 people born in 
1977. At the ages of 18, 21 and 25 they were questioned about their use of 
cannabis.

He concluded that, even when all possible confounding factors were taken 
into account, there was a clear increase in rates of psychotic symptoms 
after the start of regular use, with daily users of cannabis having rates 
over 150 per cent those of non-users.

In the journal Addiction, Professor Fergusson wrote: These findings add to 
a growing body of evidence from different sources, all of which suggest 
that heavy use of cannabis may lead to increased risk of psychotic symptoms.

The advisory council has resisted pleas from the medical profession to 
reconsider its opinion in the light of such research. But Mr Clarke said 
that he could no longer ignore the evidence.

He also asked the council to examine Dutch proposals for a higher 
classification of strong variants of cannabis, known as skunk. The Home 
Office said that the council would be expected to start a review at its 
meeting on May 19 and to report by early 2006.

Mr Clarkes decision was broadly welcomed last night, although some 
commentators questioned the timing in the run-up to a general 
election.Professor Robin Murray, a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute 
of Psychiatry at Kings College London, said: Anybody who knows anything 
about this subject will be pleased.

The councils original decision was based on research conducted in 2001, but 
there have been six studies since then showing a clear link between 
prolonged cannabis use and psychosis. The problem with the earlier report 
was that the council took evidence from psychiatrists who knew about 
addiction, but not psychiatrists, who know about psychosis.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, described the review as a 
humiliating recognition of the failure of a central plank of Labours drugs 
policy.

He added: The latest psychological evidence shows that cannabis is a 
serious threat to the health of young people and a gateway to harder drugs.

But Brian Paddick, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metroplitan Police, 
architect of the experiment that led to reclassification, was sceptical 
about giving stronger cannabis a higher classification.

It would be difficult to ask operational police officers to make a decision 
on the street as to what sort of cannabis a person had on them, he said.
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