Pubdate: Sat, 23 Mar 2002
Source: New Scientist (UK)
Copyright: New Scientist, RBI Limited 2002
Contact:  http://www.newscientist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/294
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

CANNABIS NATION

If Britain Can Wise Up, So Can The Rest Of The World

IT'S NOT often this magazine feels moved to heap praise on the 
British government or one of its panels of expert advisers.

But last week's report on cannabis from the government's Advisory 
Council on the Misuse of Drugs really should be read by teenagers, 
parents and teachers across the world 
(www.drugs.gov.uk/newsandevents/news/cannabis-acmd/view).

While making it clear that cannabis is far from benign, the report 
sensibly rates the substance as "substantially less harmful" than 
amphetamines, and less likely than alcohol and tobacco to lead to 
health problems.

The government is certain now to downgrade cannabis from its class B 
list, which includes amphetamines, to class C, which includes 
steroids.

In practice, possession of small amounts of cannabis will cease to be 
an arrestable offence in Britain, a move unthinkable even a few years 
ago. What's changed?

Not scientific opinion.

As long ago as 1968, Britain's then Advisory Committee on Drug 
Dependence concluded that cannabis was safer than amphetamines and 
alcohol, and imprisoning people for possessing it was 
disproportionate to the harm it does. The new flexibility is born of 
pragmatism and demographics. Police chiefs and politicians are less 
likely to demonise a substance they or their friends smoked in their 
youth.

And with nearly one in five Britons aged 20 to 24 now using cannabis 
regularly, it's clear that the current law is useless as a deterrent 
and serves only to criminalise otherwise lawabiding people while 
eating up vast amounts of police time.

Reclassifying cannabis will not solve all the problems linked with 
the drug. Like many other countries, Britain needs better treatment 
facilities for the minority of dope smokers who do develop a problem 
habit.

And it's not yet clear what can or should be done about those who 
drive under its influence (see p 4). But at last, Britain, for so 
long a supporter of US-style zero tolerance towards cannabis, seems 
to be catching up with its more progressive European neighbours. To 
encourage others to do the same, it's important the World Health 
Organization now has the courage to follow the lead of the British 
experts, and provide explicit advice about the health risks of 
cannabis compared with alcohol and tobacco.

The WHO opted to remove such a comparison from its last major report 
on cannabis.

It will have little credibility if it leaves it out next time round.
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