Media News > Press Releases > 31.07.06

For immediate release

SELECT COMMITTEE INQUIRY SAVAGES DRUG CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

To view the report and media coverage click here.

The Science and Technology Committee published its Fifth Report of Session 2005-06, Drug classification: making a hash of it? , [HC 1031], on Monday 31 July 2006. The report is part of the wider enquiry titled ‘ Scientific advice, risk and evidence: How Government handles them’.

Transform, in its written and oral evidence to the committee, has been keen to stress that the issue is more than just asking how individual drugs are classified – but rather that the entire classification system is un-evidenced, unscientific and unsustainable.

Transform spokesperson Steve Rolles said :

“Transform welcomes the fact that the committee has taken on board the broader critique of the classification system rather than getting bogged down in a pointless debate about why each drug is in a particular class. The bigger issue at stake here, is that the entire classification system is based on drug war ideology, has no scientific basis whatsoever, and does the exact opposite of what it is intended to do. We would like to see this is a prelude to a more significant inquiry into the evidence base for the criminalisation of drugs per se.”

“We also hope that the Home Office will now resume the drug classification consultation announced by the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke earlier this year, as specifically recommended by the committee. The consultation document was ready to be published but seems to have been kicked into the long grass by the new Home Secretary. The Select Committee’s withering critique makes this promised Home Office consultation all the more urgent”

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Notes to Editors :

In summary, Transform’s submission to the inquiry notes that there are five reasons why the drugs classification is fundamentally flawed:

1. There is no evaluation or review of the classification system against meaningful indicators.

2. The system is based on the un-evidenced assumption that criminal penalties are an effective deterrent and that stronger penalties are a stronger deterrent.

3. Alcohol and tobacco are not included in the classification system

4. Drug harms are mediated by the nature of the user, the dose of drug consumed and the method of consumption – making a system based upon broad sweep single classifications for each drug fundamentally unscientific, and meaningless in most practical terms.

5. Translating generalisations about harms/risks to an entire population into penalties for individuals is both unscientific and unjust.

ends

**Notes to editors**

Steve’s oral evidence can be read here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmsctech/c900-iv/c90002.htm

Transform’s written submission to the Committee can be read here:
http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Policy_General_Drug_Classification.htm

Details of the Inquiry: http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/science_and_technology_committee/scitech091105.cfm

News coverage of the above:

The Science and Technology Select Committee Press Release is available here and the full document is available to read here.

Guardian: "Class Matters" (01.08.06)

Independent: "Drugs the real deal" (01.08.06)
Comment: "If there ever was a war we lost it" (01.08.06)

Belfast Telegraph: "MPs: Scrap useless drug classification" (01.08.06)

Guardian: "MP's savage Government's 'ad hoc' drug policy" (31.07.06)

BBC News: "Drug Classification Rethink Urged" (31.07.06)

Yahoo News: "Booze and Fags Must Be Class B Drugs" (31.07.06)

Independent on Sunday: "MPs: Scrap useless drug classification" (30.07.06)

The current harm-rating system for drugs, including ecstasy and cannabis, is outdated, confused and should be scrapped, according to an influential committee of MPs.

A hard-hitting report from the Science and Technology Committee, published tomorrow, is expected to say that classifying drugs within a hierarchy of harm, with A the most serious and C the least, has done nothing to deter drug use or supply since being introduced more than 30 years ago.

It is understood that MPs will highlight an alternative system suggested by scientific experts based on a "harm spectrum", where issues such as the age of the user, their medical history and how the drug is consumed are all taken into account when assessing risk.

The committee's recommendations, which will be presented to the Government, are based on evidence taken from police, scientists and experts from drugs charities. This is the first review of the current drugs classification system to be carried out since it was introduced in 1971.

Drugs are classified as A, B or C, with different penalties according to the harm caused and whether the drug is likely to be misused. The Home Secretary decides what harm rating individual drugs should be given based on evidence provided by advisers, who assess the drugs according to the problems they cause to society and users.

For example, class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for possession and a life sentence for supply or intent to supply. Class B drugs carry a five-year sentence for possession or 14 years for supply. Class C drugs, which include anabolic steroids and cannabis, carry a two-year sentence with 14 years for supply.

The classification of individual drugs can change over time if new evidence shows that they pose a greater or lesser risk to society. David Blunkett, the former home secretary, reclassified cannabis from a class B to a class C drug in January 2004 in response to advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

But his successor, Charles Clarke, came under huge pressure to move the drug back to class B status earlier this year when he was Home Secretary, following new medical evidence linking cannabis use to mental health problems.

Experts have long argued that some drugs have been placed in "arbitrary" categories that do not reflect the truth about their harmful effects. For example, some anti-drug campaigners have said that the club drug ecstasy and magic mushrooms should not be in category A alongside heroin and crack cocaine because they are less addictive.

Mr Clarke commissioned a consultation paper earlier this year on drugs classification, but this is understood to have been put on hold since he resigned from the Cabinet.

The MPs' report, called Making a Hash of It?, is understood to highlight concerns that the current system is irrelevant to modern society, where recreational drug use is widespread; it warns that the system may even be used as a quality guide by teenagers.

The drugs education charity Transform told MPs during an evidence hearing that the grading system had "failed in quite spectacular fashion", with drug use increasing over the past 45 years and illegal substances becoming more widely available.

The committee was told the grading system influenced public opinion, the media and politicians, so it was important to get it right, and that drugs were too complex to be assessed under a rigid classification system.

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Transform Drug Policy Foundation is a registered charity no 1100518