Report urges regulated market for cannabis to replace prohibition

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Report urges regulated market for cannabis to replace prohibition

Duncan Campbell

Thursday October 2 2008

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/oct...hol.drugspolicy

 

A report on cannabis prepared for next year's UN drug policy review will suggest that a "regulated market" would cause less harm than the current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored.

 

The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which its authors suggest "challenge the received wisdom concerning cannabis". It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a UN-accredited NGO, for the 2009 UN strategic drug policy review.

 

There are, according to the report, now more than 160 million users of the drug worldwide. "Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," according to the report. "Historically, there have only been two deaths worldwide attributed to cannabis, whereas alcohol and tobacco together are responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per annum in the UK alone."

 

The report, compiled by a group of scientists, academics and drug policy experts, suggests that much of the harm associated with cannabis use is "the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment." Policies that control cannabis, whether draconian or liberal, appear to have little impact on the prevalence of consumption, it concluded.

 

"In an alternative system of regulated availability, market controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements, labelling and potency limits are available to minimise the harms associated with cannabis use," said the report.

 

It claimed that only through a regulated market could young people be protected from the increasingly potent forms of cannabis, such as skunk. It is intended that the report will form a blueprint for nations seeking to develop a "more rational and effective approach to the control of cannabis".

 

The authors suggest there is evidence that "the current system of cannabis regulation is not working, and ... there needs to be a serious rethink if we are to minimise the harms caused by cannabis use."

 

Last night, the report was welcomed by drug law reform organisations. "The Beckley foundation are to be congratulated for the clarity of their call for cannabis supply to be brought within government control," said Danny Kushlick of Transform. "We look forward to the same analysis being applied to heroin and cocaine."

 

The report is being launched at a two-day conference, which will be attended by leading figures in the drugs policy world.

 

The conclusions are unlikely to be embraced by the government or the Conservative party, both of which are opposed to relaxing restrictions on cannabis use.

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It claimed that only through a regulated market could young people be protected from the increasingly potent forms of cannabis, such as skunk.

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This was also reported in the sydney morning herald. Dunno how it snuck through the Aussie censors?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cannabis-...2651270558.html

 

Cannabis less harmful than drinking, smoking: report

 

 

October 3, 2008

 

Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, according to a report by a British research charity, which called for a "serious rethink" of drug policy.

 

The Beckley Foundation, a charity which numbers senior British and other academics among its advisers, said banning cannabis has no impact on supply and turns users into criminals.

 

"Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," says the report by the Foundation's Global Cannabis Commission.

 

The British government is pressing for cannabis to be re-classified in law as a Class B drug compared with its current, less serious, Class C classification.

 

Authorities are concerned notably by the growing prevalence of the potent "skunk" form of the drug. Around 80 per cent of cannabis seizures are of this strain, said to be linked to mental health problems, official figures show.

 

The Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust, claimed only two deaths worldwide have been attributed to cannabis, while alcohol and tobacco use together kill an estimated 150,000 people in Britain alone.

 

"Many of the harms associated with cannabis use are the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment," it said.

 

"It is only through a regulated market that we can better protect young people from the ever more potent forms of dope," it added.

 

The decision to reclassify cannabis upwards into the more punitive Class B category -- which includes amphetamines -- is a U-turn for Britain's Labour government.

 

Cannabis was downgraded from Class B when Tony Blair was prime minister, but Gordon Brown announced a review of its status soon after taking over in June last year.

 

An earlier review of the cannabis classification, at the time of the last 2005 general election, resulted in it remaining Class C.