The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7172 643-649
3 November 2001

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Letters to the Editor

The Journal

Disappointed

From Mrs D. K. Roberts, FRPharmS

I was somewhat disappointed in the content and tone of your news item "Cannabis is to be reclassified" (PJ, 27 October, p585). Having carefully read the press notice issued by the Home Office on 23 October, I would like to set the record straight. On that day David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on the Government's Drugs Strategy, and what he actually said was that he proposed to "seek advice from scientific and medical experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) on their assessment of the arguments for re-classifying cannabis from Class B to Class C". The note for editors attached to the press notice made it clear that, although drugs can be moved between the three classes of the Misuse of Drugs Act, there is a statutory requirement to consult the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs before doing so.

The Home Secretary has asked the ACMD to report to him within three months on the appropriateness of making such a change. In addition, he has indicated that he wants to take into account the findings of the Home Affairs Select Committee investigation into the Drugs Strategy and the evaluation of the current pilot in Lambeth on policing cannabis offences. This pilot does not finish until the end of December. As the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's nominee on the ACMD, I am concerned that our professional journal should report an event in a sensational rather than a factual manner.

The next meeting of the ACMD will take place in November, when my colleagues and I will have the opportunity to examine and discuss the evidence for and against the reclassification of cannabis from Class B to C. Once we have completed our deliberations we will give our advice to the Home Secretary who will then be in a position to put the proposals to Parliament.

Kay Roberts
Area Pharmacy Specialist — Drug Misuse
Gartnavel Royal Hospital,
Glasgow

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