BBC News

UK: Cannabis evidence 'was devalued'

Thursday 29 Oct 2009

The row over the reclassification of cannabis has been reignited
after the government's chief drug adviser accused ministers of
"devaluing" the evidence.

Professor David Nutt, who heads the Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs, says it does not cause major health problems.

He accused ex-home secretary Jacqui Smith, who reclassified the drug,
of "devaluing" scientific research.

The Home Office said these opinions "do not reflect the views of
government".

A spokesman said: "Prof Nutt's views are his own."

He added: "The government is clear: we are determined to crack down
on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and
society as a whole."

It comes after Prof Nutt used a lecture at King's College in London
and briefing paper to attack what he called the "artificial"
separation of alcohol and tobacco from other, illegal, drugs.

Precautionary measure

The professor said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small
risk" of psychotic illness, and claimed those who advocated moving
ecstasy into Class B from Class A had "won the intellectual argument".

Public concern over the links between high-strength cannabis, known
as skunk, and mental illness led the government to reclassify cannabis
to Class B from C last year.

The decision was taken despite official advisers recommending against
the change.

Ministers said they wanted to make the move as a precautionary
measure.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) review of cannabis
classification, which was ordered in 2007, was the result of a "skunk
scare", according to the professor.

In his lecture and briefing paper, entitled Estimating Drug Harms: A
Risky Business?, he repeated his claim that the risks of taking
ecstasy are no worse than riding a horse.

Prof Nutt also warned that the reclassification decision may lead to
more people taking the drug.

"It may be that if you move a drug up a class it has a greater
cachet", he said, adding the government's approach "starts to distort
the value of evidence".

He cited research which "estimates that, to prevent one episode of
schizophrenia, we would need to stop about 5,000 men aged 20 to 25
years from ever using the drug".

He said skunk has been in wide usage for about 10 years but, he
claims, there has been no upswing in schizophrenia.

The professor accepts cannabis can sometimes cause mental illness,
but argues it is safer than tobacco and alcohol and, overall, does not
lead to major health problems.

Prof Nutt said: "We have to accept young people like to experiment -
with drugs and other potentially harmful activities - and what we
should be doing in all of this is to protect them from harm at this
stage of their lives.

"We therefore have to provide more accurate and credible information.
If you think that scaring kids will stop them using, you are probably
wrong."

Following these comments, a spokesman for the ACMD said: "The lecture
Prof Nutt gave at King's College was in his academic capacity and was
not in his role as chair of the ACMD.

"We acknowledge that the lecture has prompted further debate on the
harms of drugs."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8331038.stm