Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs

HC Deb 05 December 2002 vol 395 cc971-3W

Mr. Streeter

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) on how many occasions the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs met to discuss its 2002 report on the classification of cannabis prior to its completion; which members of the Council attended each meeting; and if he will place the minutes of the meetings in the Library; [85093]

(2) on what basis members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs are appointed; [85092]

(3) what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the concentration of the active ingredients in cannabis used in the United Kingdom, with particular reference to THC; and what changes have occurred in this respect since 1972; [85098]

(4) if he will ask the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs to review their recommendation on the reclassification of cannabis following recent research into a causal relationship between the drug and mental illness; [85099]

(5) on the basis of what scientific evidence the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs to downgrade the classification of cannabis was made; and what research led the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs to conclude that the original decision on the classification of cannabis should be changed; [85096]

(6)if the conclusions to the 2002 Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report on the classification of cannabis apply to all forms of cannabis; [85094]

(7)if his intention to reclassify cannabis applies to all forms; [85095]

(8)what assessment he has made of recent research into the causal relationship between cannabis use and mental illness; and if he will make a statement [85100]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth

The report by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs: 'The classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971' was based on a detailed scrutiny of the relevant scientific literature, including four reviews commissioned by the Department of Health in 1998 as well as an update commissioned by the Home Office and completed in November 2001. A copy of the Council's report is in the Library. A fuller list of source materials is set out at pages 13 and 14 of the report.

The Advisory Council is a statutory and independent Advisory Non-Departmental Public Body, which was established under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Under the Act members of the Council, of whom there should be not less than 20, are appointed by the Secretary of State They must include representatives of the practices of medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and pharmacy, the pharmaceutical industry and chemistry other than the pharmaceutical industry and people who have a wide range of experience of social problems connected with the misuse of drugs.

Since 1971 the Advisory Council has kept the classification all drugs of abuse including cannabis under periodic and systematic review. Following my right hon Friend the Home Secretary's announcement on 23 October 2001 that he would ask the Council to review the classification of cannabis, the Council agreed at its meeting on 8 November to commission some individual members to produce a draft report on the classification of cannabis. The Council met to discuss the draft report on 15 January 2002. It's discussion was informed by meetings of sub-committees of the Council, which had been held on 1 November 2001 and the morning of 15 January 2002.

Minutes of meetings of the Council are not published documents. However, the Council's report on the classification of cannabis (referred to above) represents the outcome of the Council's discussions on 15 January 2002.

During the period leading up to the Advisory Council's report, its' membership, and the capacity in which members were appointed, reads as follows: Sir Michael Rawlins, Chairman of the Council, Professor of Pharmacology, University of Newcastle; Mr Vivian Ahmun, Director, Network Drugs Advice Project London; Mrs Joy Barlow, Independent consultant and researcher, Peebleshire; Mr Norman Bettison, Chief Constable, Merseyside Police; Reverend Martin Blakeborough, Director, Kaleidoscope Drugs Project, Kingston upon Thames; Mr Raj Boyjoonauth, Specialist Manager, The Riverside Mental Health Service, London; Mr Alexander Cameron, Director of Social Work, South Lanarkshire Council; Dr William Clee, General Medical Practitioner, South Wales; Dr Michael Donmall, Unit Director, North West Regional Drug Research Unit, Manchester; Mr Roger Howard, Chief Executive, DrugScope; Mr Alan Hunter, Secretary of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry; Professor Ronald Jones, Professor of Veterinary Anaesthesia, University of Liverpool; Professor Otto Meth-Cohn, Chemistry Department, University of Sunderland; Mr Michael Narayn Singh, Public Education Officer, Manchester City Council; Professor David Nutt, Director of Psychopharmacology Unit, University of Bristol; Dr Diana Patterson, Consultant Psychiatrist, Shaftesbury Square Hospital, Belfast; Mrs Kay Roberts, Area Pharmacy Specialist-Drug Abuse, Greater Glasgow Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust; Mrs Patrcia Roberts, Director of the Drug Studies Unit, Ruskin; Dr Anthony Duxbury, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Oral Medicine, University Dental Hospital of Manchester; Ms Vivienne Evans, Chief Executive Addiction Service for Families (ADFAM); Dr. Laurence Gruer, Director HIV & Addictions,Clinical Directorate Resource Centre, Ruchill Hospital, Glasgow; Ms Kim Hager, Independent Drugs Counsellor, Exeter; Mr Peter Hampson, Chief Constable West Mercia Constabulary: Mr Paul Hayes, South East London Probation Service; Mr Russell Hayton, Manager of Drug and Alcohol Services. Plymouth National Health Service Trust; Ms Lorraine Hewitt, Project Manager, the Stockwell Project. West Lambeth Community Care; Mr Peter Housden, Chief Executive, Nottinghamshire County Council; Dr Roy Robertson, General Medical Practitioner, Edinburgh; Dr Sue Ruben, Consultant Psychiatrist, Liverpool; Mr Ian Sherwood, Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist, Avon Drug Problem Team; Professor John Strang, Director of the Addiction Research Unit, National Addiction Centre; Mr Peter Walker, Headteacher, the Abbey School, Kent; and Mrs Barbara Whiteley, Magistrate, London

The possible link between cannabis use and mental illness (especially schizophrenia) has been debated for many years. In its report on the classification of cannabis, the Advisory Council said that no clear causal link was demonstrated, although cannabis could unquestionably worsen schizophrenia (and other mental illnesses) and lead to relapse in some patients. The research highlighted by the British Medical Journal (23 November 2002) adds to, but is not at variance with, the existing body of research which was drawn on by the Council in its consideration of the classification of cannabis. The Council reviews all recent research in a systematic way. The Home Secretary does not propose to ask the Council to review its recommendation about the classification of cannabis.

The Forensic Science Service and the Laboratory of the Government Chemist analyse drug seizures and are therefore able to monitor the concentration of active ingredients in cannabis used in the United Kingdom, and in particular of the main psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The data they have collected indicates that the THC content of different cannabis products has varied, and continues to vary, widely, but that during the late 1980s and 1990s products with higher levels of THC became available as a result of new growing techniques being developed.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, in its report on the classification of cannabis, recommended the reclassification of all cannabis preparations to Class C under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. This includes all forms of cannabis listed in Parts 1 and 11 of Schedule 2 to the Act. The Home Secretary intends to bring forward proposals to the House to amend the Act in line with the Council's recommendations.