§ Mr. Freesonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance is currently given by him to chief constables concerning the detection and prosecution of cannabis users.
§ Mr. BrittanNone.
§ Mrs. René e Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration has been given to the possibility that cannabis might have entered the blood of a motorist through the food chain via any of the plants in the hemp family.
§ Mr. BrittanI understand that the active constituents of cannabis, as legally defined, occur naturally only in the plant genus cannabis. These constituents could only enter the blood in the way postulated by the consumption of the cannabis plant material, its resin, or preparations from those materials.
§ Mr. Freesonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress there has been with the work of the working party of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to assess the current scientific evidence on the effects of the use of cannabis and cannabis resin.
§ Mr. RaisonThe working group is at an early stage in its study. Members are now engaged in the preparation of working papers for its second meeting in August, having established a framework for its study at the first.
§ Mrs. René e Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions of motorists there have been alleging cannabis in the blood; and what percentage of these have been contested.
§ Mr. BrittanThe information requested is not available. The statistics 239W collected centrally do not distinguish offences of driving whilst unfit through drugs from those of driving whilst unfit through alcohol. The latest available figures relating to prosecutions for driving etc. after consuming alcohol or taking drugs are given in tables 1, 4 and 6 of "Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales, 1978", Cmnd. 7687.