UK making steps to upgrade marijuana back to Class B substance

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Guardian Unlimited:

Skunk becomes drug of choice for cannabis users
Roxanne Escobales and agencies
Tuesday February 5, 2008
Guardian Unlimited

Cannabis users are smoking more of the stronger stuff as skunk marijuana pushes traditional pot to the sidelines of the British drugs market, a government advisory panel heard today.

The highly potent sinsemilla, or "skunk" as it's known on the street, is now used by up to 70% of cannabis users, jumping from just 15% six years ago.

The evidence marked the beginning of a two-day fact-finding mission by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The information presented will form the basis of the council's recommendations to the government about whether or not cannabis should be reclassified as a class B drug, after being bumped down to class C four years ago.

Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said she believed cannabis should be returned to class B to combat what she said were mixed messages on its harmfulness.

Rawlins asked: "Are you really wanting people to go to prison for five years for possession? Bear in mind that 3.5 million took cannabis last year - there aren't enough prison spaces to deal with them all."

The national director for mental health at the Department of Health, Louis Appleby, told the committee that attitudes towards cannabis had become complacent.

He said health professionals had been "guilty of complacency" on the issue.

Pointing to evidence that implicates marijuana use in the development of severe mental illness, Appleby called cannabis a "harmful drug" that contributed to a cycle of relapse and risk in mentally disordered patients.

Cindy Barnett of the Magistrates Association told the hearing that downgrading "sent out the wrong message".

"An awful lot of people think cannabis is now legal," she said. "We feel very strongly it is a question of mixed messages, confusion and increasing harm that is being caused by reclassification to class C and we feel very strongly it should go back to class B."

Dr Les King, an adviser to the Home Office scientific development branch, told the ACMD several hundred samples seized by police on the streets in just the last weeks showed levels of skunk had rocketed, while cannabis resin, or hash, had slumped to being used by 20% of smokers, compared to over 60% previously.

Traditional herbal cannabis now accounts for just 5% of seizures, compared with 15% six years ago, he added.

"The large increase in the market share of sinsemilla appears to have come about in the last few years," said King. "It is now clearly the dominant product. It coincides with the rise of these large organised criminal concerns run by the Vietnamese. Traditional herbal cannabis has almost been squeezed out of the market."

The Vietnamese "concerns" King refers to is the sharp escalation of pot farms over the past couple of years. In the two years up to March 2007, police had raided 1,500 cannabis factories in London alone - triple the amount from the two years previous to that period, according to earlier figures from the drugs charity DrugScope.

David Potter, of GW Pharmaceuticals, who has conducted a separate survey of samples from a number of police forces, told the ACMD he had found a similar swing towards stronger cannabis.

"It's like a wave moving towards the more potent end," he said. "People are moving towards sinsemilla, which is a much, much more potent product. This has the potential to change the cannabis scene quite a lot."

The ACMD heard that skunk contains higher levels of the active ingredient in cannabis, known as THC. But it also contains much lower levels of another ingredient, cannabidiol or CBD, an anti-psychotic substance which may moderate effects of THC on the mental health of users.

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has said she would keep an open mind on the issue of reclassification in the face of calls for tougher penalties for possession from the police and the opposition.

Not sure whether to laugh or shake my head at that study. Sad that things like this are what end up influencing political decisions.

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Guardian Unlimited:

Police 'unequivocally' support reclassification of cannabis
Roxanne Escobales and agencies
Tuesday February 5, 2008
Guardian Unlimited

The police and the Tories today demanded the reclassification of cannabis as a class B drug as the home secretary insisted she had yet to make a decision on the matter.

Assistant Chief Constable Simon Byrne, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) spokesman on cannabis, said that his organisation supported a return to a Class B classification "quite unequivocally".

Police chiefs say that their experience on the streets and the increase in cannabis farms makes the case for a return to a tougher law on cannabis, which was downgraded from a class B to class C drug in 2004.

"It is a very interesting debate and there are a wide variety of opinions which we respect, but the bottom line from a police point of view is that since reclassification four years ago we have seen a significant rise in cannabis farms, which point to increasing use of organised crime in this particular market; that's a worry for us," Byrne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"There has been confusion on the streets about whether cannabis is legal or not which is fuelling public concern about how it is being policed."

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said that the Tories would reclassify the drug, supply treatment for offenders and toughen up border police to prevent drugs from being brought in to the country.

"Not only is cannabis a gateway to harder drugs and a major cause of crime, it has real and tragic consequences for the mental health of so many people," he said.

But the home secretary, Jacqui Smith - who has admitted to past cannabis use when she was at university - was at pains to stress that a decision had yet to be taken.

In a letter, she assured the chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) that she had not already formed any conclusions about the classification of the drug.

The government advisory group was today starting a two-day evidence-gathering mission to investigate whether tougher penalties ought to be introduced for cannabis.

Along with examining the reclassification issue, the ACMD will hear new evidence on the latest trends in the potency of the cannabis available on Britain's streets, research into the drug's effects on mental health, and market research that looked at whether the public was aware of cannabis's current legal status and the potential penalties for using the drug

Some members of the ACMD said that they would consider resigning if the government ignored their conclusions.

Cannabis was reclassified in January 2004, making possession a largely non-arrestable offence, and placing it alongside some prescription anti-depressants and bodybuilding drugs.

Gordon Brown announced last July, within weeks of taking over as prime minister, that he would demand a new review of the drug's legal position because of emerging evidence about its effects and reports that stronger strains of the drug were becoming available.

Depressing that law authorities are already responding.

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The Press Association

Minister's 'open mind' on cannabis

10 hours ago

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has insisted she still has an open mind about whether cannabis should be reclassified, the head of the Government's drug advisers said.

Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, said he had received a letter of reassurance from the politician after reports that she was prepared to disregard the committee's recommendations.

On the day the ACMD begins a two-day evidence session examining whether tougher penalties should be introduced for cannabis - four years after it was downgraded from Class B to Class C - Sir Michael said: "I will be reading a letter from the Home Secretary that I received yesterday, basically saying that the Government has an open mind."

Some members of the committee had said they would consider resigning if the Government ignored its conclusions.

Asked if he had been reassured by the pledges in Ms Smith's letter, Sir Michael said: "Absolutely, yes."

He also revealed that the ACMD would hear new evidence on the latest trends in the potency of the cannabis available on Britain's streets.

Research on the drug's effects on mental health will also be discussed.

Additionally, the ACMD will reveal the results of market research which looked into whether the public was aware of cannabis' current legal status and the potential penalties for using the drug.

Cannabis was reclassified in January 2004, making possession a largely non-arrestable offence, and placing it alongside some prescription anti-depressants and bodybuilding drugs.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced last July, within weeks of taking over at No 10, that he would demand a new review of the drug's legal position because of new emerging evidence about its effects and reports that stronger strains of the drug were becoming available.

At least she's keeping "an open mind"