Cannabis possession to carry more severe penalties

The drug was graded as class B for many years until 2004 when, in a bid to save police time, the then Home Secretary in the Blair Government, David Blunkett, downgraded it to class C. Scientific advice at the time also led the Government to believe that it was less harmful than class B drugs.

It was in the 1970s that the law placed drugs in different categories, depending on how much harm they could cause. Class A included those that were most harmful, such as heroin; class B included those that were considered less harmful, such as amphetamines and barbiturates; and class C dealt with those believed to be the least dangerous.

In practice, the downgrading in 2004 meant, in legal speak, that there was a “presumption against arrest” when police officers came across someone with cannabis in their possession. Most people caught with the drug were, therefore, unlikely to be arrested, with the police giving them an informal warning instead.

Earlier this year, however, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the 2004 downgrade had sent a wrong signal. And only a few days ago, he stated: “We have really got to send out a message to young people that this (using cannabis) is not acceptable.”

In an editorial last Wednesday, the Independent said: “Mr Brown seems to think that official drug classifications are a deterrent. This is a fantasy . . . Reclassification will do nothing except more than double the maximum sentence for possession from two to five years. And since this sentence is very rarely used, it will have no added deterrent effect whatsoever.

“The 2004 downgrading was a step forward because it freed up the police to concentrate on tackling the distribution of hard drugs. Now officers will once again find their time wasted, arresting cannabis smokers. Once again, the fight against addiction and trafficking of hard drugs will be hampered by muddle-headed politicians playing cheap politics.”

In regrading the drug to class B, the Government has overruled its own expert advisers amid fears that Britain is in the grip of an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis. This is based on the conviction that the cannabis now sold on the streets is stronger than it was a generation ago and is tipping increasing numbers of vulnerable people into serious mental illness.

Easily available on the streets now is what is called skunk, which news reports are proclaiming is 20 to 30 times as strong as the cannabis smoked in the 1970s. This is fuelling public alarm. The Prime Minister himself has spoken of the “lethal” effects of the new strains, as if they are comparable with the harm caused by heroin and crack cocaine.

Personally, I welcome any new focus on the harm caused by cannabis, as there are reasons for concern. But what has united medical specialists and drug workers is the conviction that whether the drug is classified as B or C is an irrelevance. They see it as detracting attention from the central issue which they believe is to educate young people about the risks.

Shortly after becoming Prime Minister last June, Mr Brown asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to review the status of cannabis. When he made the request, it seemed clear that he wanted to see its reclassification from C back to B. But the ACMD reached the opposite conclusion. In its report, sent to the Home Office last month, it said that cannabis should remain in class C. It dismissed the argument that downgrading the drug in 2004 had sent a confusing message to the public and said the link between heavy cannabis use and mental illness was unproven.

The ACMD was set up in 1971, the same time the current drug classification system was established.

When the Home Secretary (and the Prime Minister) chose not to heed its latest recommendations, it was only the second time that it was overridden by a government.

It had called for cannabis to be downgraded as far back as 1979 but Margaret Thatcher’s government said it would never reduce drug penalties. It was not until Mr Blunkett was convinced that the drug was diverting police resources from more important work that he announced the change from class B to class C in 2004. But in July last year, a government-commissioned study came up with disturbing new findings. It said that smoking a single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 percent and that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness.

These grim statistics, among the latest to link teenage cannabis use with severe mental illness in later life, came only days after Mr Brown ordered the ACMD review whose advice his government is now ignoring. Perhaps, it is the study rather than the review that is motivating the Prime Minister to once more upgrade cannabis to a class B drug.