Great title eh?
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has published its report on the classification of drugs: they’ve got a good sense of humour I see. The title of the report is: “Drugs Classification: Making a Hash of It?”
This is the fifth report of the session 2005-2006 and the Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to “examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of Science and Innovation and its associated public bodies.”
The report is the “second of three case studies under the Committee’s over-arching inquiry into the Government’s handling of scientific advice, risk and evidence in policy making. It addresses the relationship between scientific advice and evidence and the classification of illegal drugs“
So what do they have to say about the government”s drugs reclassification policy and actions?
“With respect to the ABC classification system, we have identified significant anomalies in the classification of individual drugs and a regrettable lack of consistency in the rationale used to make classification decisions. In addition, we have expressed concern at the Government’s proclivity for using the classification system as a means of ‘sending out signals’ to potential users and society at large—it is at odds with the stated objective of classifying drugs on the basis of harm and the Government has not made any attempt to develop an evidence base on which to draw in determining the ‘signal’ being sent out.â€
Overall Recommendation:
“We have found no convincing evidence for the deterrent effect, which is widely seen as underpinning the Government’s classification policy, and have criticised the Government for failing to meet its commitments to evidence based policy making in this area. More generally, the weakness of the evidence base on addiction and drug abuse is a severe hindrance to effective policy making and we have therefore urged the Government to increase significantly its investment in research.â€
Ah…very interesting! So perhaps there may be something to what I”ve been saying on posts on this site a while back about the cannabis debate- when the re-re-classification hoo-ha was raging. I”ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the drug classification of cannabis has to do more with funny ideas and attempts at moralizing (not very good ones i might add ) on the part of Government, the sort of thing that only leads to less information on what”s actually going on, a good source of income for criminals, lot of work for the police, hassle for spliff lovers, and not much else.
That’s it, Sonia. You tell ‘em!
He heh Yes Indeedy! Are you on the way to Ecotopia? Or already there. Must cover that this weekend..
Quite the interesting blog you have here Sonia. I saw your comment on Kel’s blog (Osterly Times) and followed you here…I must be bored with two kids in bed and a husband on a three day retreat with a Tin Tin comic book waiting for me on the bed to read to be surfing the net… wait..that didn’t make sense! Ok..it’s friday evening.. no, that didn’t make sense either..
ok..shutting up!
cheers!
Ingrid
HI ingrid! thanks for the comment - look forward to checking out your blog..
Wow — a government w/a sense of humor about Drugs. Lucky you!
Interesting that They don’t talk about drugs in America, since 911. The debate is over, but the Drug War rages inexplicably on.
And the days of our government doing anything Funny are long, long gone.
Best wishes,
Mike E
Hi Mike,
Yep nowadays the US of A isn’t very funny anymore. It’s all this back to patriotism -let’s pretend we’re-all Puritans thinking. Interesting what you say about the issue with drugs - i mean yeah, before the War on Terror it was the War on Drugs. And before that..
Gosh, some people must like the sound of War ..
I earnestly believe there should be no drugs classification and all drugs should be made illegal with 10 years in jail for possession and use. This may seem extreme, but as a medical student who intends to go into psychiatry I have seen the first hand effects of drug use on people at a drug clinic where I was conducting research. I think it would be a gross understatement to say these peoples lives were torn apart by their addiction. Many individuals are going around exclaiming cannabis should be legal, which to me makes absolutely no sense at all. One has to only look at the effects cannabis can have on the brain. Cannabis acts to increase dopaminergic transmission in the brain, perhaps permanently. What does that mean? Nothing at all, it just means the drug can cause schizophrenia, perhaps the worst disease known to man. It severely disables you, gives you an impaired perception of reality and paranoia which can lead to violence or perhaps as highlighted in the news murder. This disease completley destroys who you are making you a shadow of your former self constantly living in fear and hurting the people you love. Best of all howvever there is no cure. If that does not put people off the drug I don’t know what would. Actually I do, gyneocomastia or males breasts, that should hopefully deter about 100% of men, accept those that want breasts.
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