Is this the
result of a careful study of the evidence or of giving in to electoral
considerations?
Charles Clarke,
the UK home secretary, was criticised yesterday from both sides of the debate on
the misuse of drugs when he publicly indicated that he is considering restoring
the class B status of cannabis in the light of medical evidence. In what the
tabloids labelled a "humiliating climbdown" from the decision of his
predecessor, David Blunkett, to downgrade the widely used drug to class C, Mr
Clarke used media interviews to signal his approval of an imminent report, which
he has already read, from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Without divulging the report's
contents Mr Clarke said he would accept one recommendation - to increase
education about the dangerous effects of cannabis and its legal status, after Mr
Blunkett's decision two years ago caused anti-drug partisans to claim that the
drug had been '"decriminalised». In an interview with the Times the home
secretary confirmed what his officials have been saying, that new medical
evidence has prompted a number of people to change their minds. "I'm very struck
by the advocacy of a number of people who have been proposers of the
reclassification of cannabis that they were wrong," he said. "I am also very
worried about the most recent medical evidence on mental health. This is a very
serious issue."Under Mr Blunkett's reclassification, designed to free up
police
time to concentrate on dealers of more serious drugs, possession of cannabis
became a non-arrestable offence in most cases. But it remains illegal and
sentences range from up to two years' jail for possession and 14 years for
dealing. At the beginning of last year, the Home Office said the
reclassification was paying dividends as cannabis arrests had fallen by 33% in
the first five months after the move. It claimed that the change in the law
represented a saving of almost 200,000
police-officer
hours, giving
police
more time to target dealers of class A drugs. However, figures released by the
Metropolitan
police
last year showed that the number of people arrested for dealing hard drugs in
London
had fallen steadily since 2001, despite the reclassification. When asked
yesterday if Mr Blunkett's move had helped at all, Mr Clarke conceded: "I think
it gives a steer to the citizen on more serious drug consumption." His tone
prompted a positive response from his Tory shadow, David Davis, who called for
"appropriate action", especially with regard to mental health. (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1680311,00.html)