No Turning Back on ‘Soft’ Cannabis Laws ; Clarke ‘Will Not Upgrade Drug but Will Launch Campaign on Dangers’
By PAUL WAUGH
THE downgrading of the cannabis laws is unlikely to be changed by Home Secretary Charles Clarke, the Evening Standard has learned.
Mr Clarke is poised to rule out a reversal of David Blunkett’s decision to change the drug from class B to Class C – but will acknowledge the dangers of cannabis with a new hard-hitting campaign about the risk it poses to mental health.
Whitehall sources said today that the minister had yet to make a final decision but Labour MPs believe it will remain unchanged.
Instead of causing more chaos by reversing the law, Mr Clarke is expected to launch a huge publicity campaign informing young people that using cannabis is neither safe nor legal, even though its classification has changed in recent years.
But an Evening Standard investigation today raised serious concerns-over the safety of cannabis and found that the drug being sold on the street is far stronger – and therefore more dangerous to mental health – than ever before.
It comes after the latest report by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which found that the impact on mental health was more serious than previously thought.
But the council stopped short of recommending reclassification and many drugs experts say it would be counterproductive to go back to the old system.
It said: “The risk to an individual of developing a schizophreniform illness as a result of using cannabis is very small. The harmfulness of cannabis to the individual remains substantially less than the harmfulness caused by substances currently controlled under the act as class B.”
Mr Clarke’s was warned by members of the council that some would consider quitting if he reclassified cannabis.
Brian Paddick, the senior Scotland Yard officer who pioneered the ” softlysoftly” approach to cannabis in Lambeth, also weighed in, saying he had never recommended downgrading the drug.
He said: “I never discussed the Lambeth pilot with the Home Office. For people to say that it was my idea that led to the reclassification of cannabis … well, I never spoke to the Home Office at all about it. I don’t think cannabis should have been downgraded.”