Cannabis Reclassifcation Debate Could Distract UK Government From Communicating Risks Of Use

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 02 Nov 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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Debating the merits of reclassification of cannabis in the UK could distract the government from the more important job of effectively communicating the risks of using the drug, say authors of Correspondence in this week's edition of The Lancet.

Louisa Degenhardt, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia, and Wayne Hall, University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues refer to a recently published Lancet Editorial on cannabis use, which draws on increasing strong evidence that the drug has a contributory role in psychosis, and debates the wisdom of the UK government's decision to reclassify the drug from B to C in 2004. They say: "The focus on the association between cannabis use and psychosis is understandable, but it distracts attention from more frequent health problems."

The authors question the apparent implicit assumption that reclassification of cannabis, and consequent more severe penalties, will reduce use. They use Australian policy to demonstrate why this may not work-saying that despite different penalties for use across states and territories, cannabis use changed at similar rates across them all. They say: "This finding strongly suggests that other factors-such as societal attitudes and perceived harms-are more important drivers of consumption than penalties for use."

They conclude: "There is a danger that a debate about the reimposition of criminal penalties will distract the British government from more effective communication with the public about the risks of use - which, along with psychosis, should emphasise the more common health risks. Better research is needed on the effect (or lack thereof) of increased penalties on use and harm. It would be mistaken for the British community to assume that the public health problems arising from cannabis use can be solved by the stroke of a legislative pen."

There are four other pieces of correspondence in this week's Lancet discussing a recently published Lancet study on the association between cannabis and psychosis.

The Lancet