No Cannabis Law Change

Back in December I posted articles titled Cannabis Laws Too Lenient and You're not a drug dealer if.....

Charles Clarke has today ruled out a cannabis law change in favour of launching a complete overhaul of the way drugs are classified and prohibited. He said he had been concerned that the existing system - of Class A, B and C substances - had caused some people to misinterpret the downgrading of cannabis.

"In the next few weeks I will publish a consultation paper with proposals for a review of the drug classification system, on the basis of which I will in due course make proposals," he said.

Mr Clarke said he will launch a major public information campaign to stress that cannabis was "anything but harmless".

He also revealed that draft guidelines published in November which would have allowed people to carry up to half a kilogram of leaf cannabis for "personal use" will be watered down.

He said: "The Home Office recently published a consultation exercise to look at threshold levels of cannabis in a person's possession which would deem them to be a supplier. I would like to inform the House that my final decision will be at a considerably lower threshold than the 500g suggested in the current consultation."