Why was cannabis reclassified as a class b drug

She also announced that she would work with the Association of Chief Police Officers Acpo to find ways of using existing laws to curtail the trade in cannabis paraphernalia such as pipes. Smith's decision to upgrade the drug went against the recommendations of the government's scientific experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which was asked by Smith to take its third look at cannabis classification in recent years. The council's advice, published today, was that cannabis should remain class C.

The ACMD chair, Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, refused to criticise the home secretary, saying that the ACMD's recommendations were based entirely on harmfulness - but that the government had the right to consider other factors. He said: "We don't take into account 'the message', we don't take into account policing priorities; we are obliged by law only to take into account the harmfulness.

That's their right; they are the government. We are only an advisory committee and from time to time governments, for their own reasons, may wish to ignore the advice. He insisted that the recommendation on classification, ignored by the home secretary, was the least important of the 21 in the report.

The thing I take great comfort from is that all the other recommendations are fully accepted and they are the ones that I think will make a difference. He said he would be surprised if there were any resignations from the council, and advised members to "tough it out". His council heard evidence that the potency of homegrown herbal cannabis tended to be two and a half times that of imported resin.

But they said users now often moderated their intake. Due to new scientific research which suggested that cannabis was more harmful to the human body than first thought, cannabis was reclassified as a Class B drug in January If found guilty of possession of cannabis, you could be facing up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine or both. It might not seem like a big deal, but the Courts take cannabis-related crimes very seriously.

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The government also intends to introduce an 'escalation' penalty system for cannabis possession by those aged over The system for unders caught in possession will remain unchanged as it already provides an escalation mechanism, according to the government's response. Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs Cannabis: classification and public health.

London: United Kingdom Home Office. Central Office of Information Government response to the recommendations made by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in its report Cannabis: classification and public health. Item Type. Publication Type. International, Open Access, Article. Drug Type. Intervention Type. Harm reduction. Issue Title. Issue 29, Spring Page Range. Health Research Board.