Danger classification of drugs call

13 April 2012

The system for classifying controlled drugs is based on "ad hockery and conservatism" and must be scrapped, an influential group of MPs has said.

A new scale should be introduced which rates substances purely on the basis of health and social risks and is not linked to potential punishments, according to the Science and Technology Committee.

Alcohol and tobacco should also be included in the ratings to give the public a "better sense of the relative harms involved".

The MPs reached their conclusions in an in-depth report on the classification of drugs.

Currently, controlled drugs are put into alphabetical categories which reflect the level of penalties offences such as possession and dealing can attract.

The highest class, A, contains substances such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and magic mushrooms, while class B includes speed and barbiturates, and class C cannabis and some tranquilisers.

The committee said police saw the classification system as of "little importance" at present, and urged a "decoupling" of penalties and the harm ranking of drugs.

It criticised the Government's approach to classifications as "opaque" and said reviews seemed to be launched "as knee-jerk responses to media storms".

The system needed to be more "responsive" when new evidence concerning the risks of particular substances was brought to light, the report added.

And MPs denounced the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs - which provides scientific guidance to the government - for "dereliction of duty" in failing to alert ministers of "serious flaws" in the rating system.

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