Review the laws on medicinal cannabis
If proof were needed of the confusion in the UK’S drugs policy it was yesterday’s Commons statement about the medical use of cannabis. This was delivered not by a health minister but the Home Secretary. Drugs have two principal functions. They can be used for recreational purposes to produce a mind-altering state; or they can help treat ailments and relieve pain. When policy is in the hands of the department responsible for preventing the first, the second tends to suffer. So it has proved with cannabis, with people whose symptoms might be alleviated by the drug forbidden from using it.
Sajid Javid’s announcement of a review is to be welcomed, but it has only come about because the Government found itself embarrassed by media coverage of the plight of children denied the drug. Their parents had made direct appeals to ministers, including Theresa May, to no avail. Only when their stories were emblazoned across the front pages did the Government award special licences to allow the drug to be prescribed. That must not be allowed to happen again.
The review will seek to establish whether there are significant therapeutic benefits from cannabis and consider its scheduling for medical purposes. It is hard to understand why this has not been carried out before. It is not controversial: polls show substantial public support for such a move, with approval highest among older voters.
However, Mr Javid said he did not intend to reclassify cannabis from a Class B to Class C substance, as the Labour government did briefly, and the Government remains implacably opposed to legalisation. In this newspaper, William Hague, the former Conservative leader, said the war on cannabis had been lost and it was time for this to be acknowledged in law. But given the well-attested damaging effects of taking powerful variants of cannabis such as skunk, encouraging any take-up of the drug could have serious public health consequences. No responsible government will run that risk.
But it must be right to examine cannabis therapies. It is perverse that these are ignored while the prescription of opioid-based painkillers is fine, when they are potentially far more dangerous and addictive. The danger, as has been seen in America, is that medicinal use becomes a back door for effective legalisation for recreational use. This is the right step, but it needs to be a careful one.