Laid-back approach is best for cannabis

Gordon Brown wants to take a tough stand on drugs, starting with the regrading of marijuana as a class B drug. But, as Chris Marshall discovers, there are many doubts about his approach.

ALMOST as if it was imitating the effects of the drug itself, the debate surrounding the reclassification of cannabis has become increasingly hazy of late. The Government's drug advisory body is expected to recommend it keeps its current class C status, ranking it alongside painkillers and stress medication, rather than return it to class B with the likes of amphetamines.

That would once again require police to arrest anyone found in possession of the drug rather than simply caution them.

Gordon Brown, though, wants to upgrade it – a move he believes would send out a clear message that smoking dope is damaging to health and socially unacceptable.

Opinions on the matter are deeply divided, even among the agencies working with drug users, and mental health charities.

It takes time to cut through the haze, but after a careful study of the facts, a clearer picture does emerge.

The new report – commissioned amid fears about the growing availability of stronger "skunk" strains of cannabis – cites one important piece of evidence.

Significant new research from Keele University has severely dented the theory that cannabis use can cause schizophrenia. It has found that far from cases of the illness increasing in line with growing cannabis use in the UK in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, they have actually fallen. The same goes for incidences of psychosis.

Concerns of a link, however, remain, with a growing consensus that the drug seems to trigger or exacerbate the condition in a relatively small number of cases. There is also no doubt that its long-term usage increases the risk of lung cancer, high blood pressure and infertility.

The other great fear about former home secretary David Blunkett's downgrading of the drug in 2004, that it would lead to an explosion in use, also appears to have been unfounded.

Official research suggests cannabis use has actually fallen slightly over the last four years. Although that is probably unrelated to Mr Blunkett's decision, the reclassification has certainly not led to increased problems.

John Arthur, of Crew 2000, an advice and support group for Edinburgh's young drug users, is convinced that keeping cannabis class C is the right decision.

"Cannabis must be the most researched drug in terms of mental health problems," he said.

"There're around three million regular users of cannabis in the UK and if there were associated mental health problems you would think it would come through a lot more.

"There's absolutely no doubt that it can make existing problems worse, but it's completely dose dependent and will pass when the drug is out of the system. There's no evidence that's been produced to show it actually causes mental illness.

"Cannabis is like any other drug, including nicotine, alcohol and caffeine. All of them have an impact on mental health.

"There's always been strong cannabis around, but people don't tend to use the same amount, in the same way they don't use the same amounts of stronger types of alcohol. They only use the amount it takes to get them where they want to go."

Others working in the field remain concerned about the growing perception of cannabis as a "soft drug", an idea clearly reinforced by the C grading.

Chris Denmark, a research officer at Action on Alcohol and Drug Edinburgh, said many younger users were ignorant of the drug's dangers.

"A lot of people don't even view cannabis as a drug – it's become almost accepted," he said. "We've got really quite a young population smoking hash and that's been going on for a few years now. There has been two recent surveys of Scottish schools and there are kids under the age of 16 smoking it. I do think it's a dangerous drug. Calling it a 'soft drug' is a bit of a misnomer. Over the last few years there has been more and more evidence of a lot of potential problems being stored up by using cannabis."

One of the ironies of the debate is that it will have no impact on the approach of police in Scotland.

Gordon Meldrum, deputy director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said: "When cannabis was reclassified, the Scottish Police Service effectively made no change and the day-to-day reality is that there has been no change in policing style or stance.

"We still treat people found on the street with cannabis in exactly the same way. We still see cannabis as a dangerous drug and a number of recent studies have confirmed that. Cannabis is still viewed very much as a gateway drug – it's still the first drug that children and young people will try. We've a focus on cocaine and heroin, but we've never taken our eye off the ball as far as cannabis is concerned."

Given the latest medical research and drug use studies, it is hard to resist the logic that cannabis should be graded class C. Smoking dope is certainly a lot less dangerous than taking amphetamines, so from a clinical point of view C does make sense. The argument, though, is also about the broader message, as the Prime Minister points out, sending out signals to young people at some level about the dangers and acceptability of drugs.

But is there not as much danger of sending out confused signals about other drugs if we are to artificially raise the status of cannabis? Should drug laws encourage people to think amphetamines are no more dangerous than cannabis when they clearly are?

Our approach to drugs as a nation needs to be based on honesty and facts if the important warnings about their inherent dangers are to carry any weight with an increasingly savvy generation of drug users.