Buzzby

Experts Say Cannabis Should Stay Class C Despite Mental Health Fears
Sophie Goodchild | The Independent | 09/25/2005

Drug experts will advise ministers that there should be no reversal of the downgrading of cannabis from a class B to a class C drug following claims that it is linked with mental illness.

Members of the Advisory Council on Drugs (ACMD) are understood to have ruled out a change after hearing evidence from cannabis users as well as police and drugs charities.

The ACMD met yesterday and on Friday in response to a request from Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, to reassess the dangers of the drug. This followed the recent publication of studies which associated cannabis with "psychotic" symptoms.

The drug advisers were also asked to provide guidance on a higher classification for skunk - a more potent form of cannabis - but it is understood that members of the ACMD think this would be unworkable.

Most cases of cannabis possession are now non-arrestable offences, but research published next year is likely to show some police forces are continuing to take a hard line against users.

A source close to the ACMD said: "The feeling is that the committee has given thorough consideration to all the research on the health risks of cannabis and that reclassification is not necessary."

However, this does not rule out a rethink. Mr Clarke has indicated he still may reverse the decision of David Blunkett, the previous Home Secretary, to make cannabis a class C drug even if the ACMD advises him against this.

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MrIMStoned

It looks like the're looking for a way to punish pot smokers, who are disturbances, from the 40 year olds growing 1 plant. I mean what would the difference be? You get high smoking any classification of pot.

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"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?"

Hashishi

*folds arms and leans back in large, green, fluffy arm-chair looking smug and self-satisfied*

well, at least they LOOK like they've done something, eh?

charles clarke really is a prick. seriously, its always nice to see a new minister come in (especially after the last one was blind) just to see how long it takes for people to turn against him. i think this balding ball of flab's set a new record. wanker.

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vladimir

this reminds me of when nixon created a committee to figure out how to better fight the drug war. when they came back with the biggest solution being to decriminalize pot, he threw the report away.
some politicians just cant handle the truth, even if they commissioned the search for it.

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If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of, the human experiment.

ssj3gotenks

What is GBR? is that in the US? UK? I don't know but i really hope that cannabis is decrimialized/legalized, rather than more illegal.

Medical or not medical, if cannabis was legal, crime would drop. The government wants to tell you about how evil mj is but what they DON'T tell you is how they got the FBI to distribute crack cocaine in ghettos to spread havoc. It just has to be true. There is soooo much evidence supporting this claim. I'm not sure why they did that, but they did do it, i'm 90% sure. Also, cigarettes/nicotine has NO accepted medical use but it's legal.

Buzzby

Great BRitain


That's a pretty wild claim! Where's the evidence? Sounds like tinfoil-hat stuff to me.

Hashishi

i've got a funny feeling that claim's been mixed up with rumours surrounding the cia's financial involvement with drug trafficking.