Pubdate: Mon, 18 Feb 2002
Source: Herald, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 The Herald
Contact:  http://www.theherald.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/189
Author: Lorna Martin

MPS SET TO BACK RELAXATION OF DRUG LAWS

AN influential group of MPs will call for the decriminalisation of cannabis 
and the downgrading of ecstasy in an authoritative report to be published 
later this year, it was reported yesterday.

MPs on the Commons home affairs select committee have carried out a 
seven-month investigation, at Downing Street's request, into the drug laws.

It is understood the report will call for ecstasy to be downgraded from a 
class A to a class B drug, for the wider prescription of heroin on the NHS 
to addicts and for an end to prosecutions for possession of cannabis. The 
report came as the Department of Health publishes a consultation paper on 
cannabis derivatives being prescribed on the NHS to multiple sclerosis 
sufferers.

The government today will ask its medicines watchdog, the National 
Institute of Clinical Excellence, to issue consultative guidelines for 
doctors on prescribing two cannabis derivatives - one called dronabinol, 
which will be available in capsule form, and another cannabis-based 
medicinal extract spray.

Both products are still undergoing trials and are unlikely to be licensed 
for use until 2004.

Alistair Ramsay, director of Scotland Against Drugs, said the Home Office 
committee was effectively concerned with England and took evidence from 
only two groups in Scotland. He said there would have to be much more 
thorough research before any changes were made to the UK-wide drug legislation.

"There's a much more Calvinistic view of drugs in Scotland and consequently 
similar soundings would have to be taken before any changes were made," he 
said. "As far as I'm aware, there's no appetite among the public in 
Scotland for a change in the law. The general view is that there's quite 
enough damage done by legal drugs in Scotland without adding to the 
complications by decriminalising another mood-altering substance."

Regarding the use of cannabis derivatives for medicinal purposes, Mr Ramsay 
said he was supportive of a non-smokable form of cannabinoids being 
prescribed to a patient for whom there is no better pain relief.

Lord Philip Hunt, the health minister, said: "This programme . . . contains 
the first assessment of medicines for pain relief in multiple sclerosis 
which use cannabis derivatives."
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