CLASSIFICATION OF DRUGS

That this House notes with concern that within the public debate on the future of drugs policy there is an increasing focus on the classification of cannabis; considers this to be a limited avenue for debate given the range of problems created for individuals and society by the current situation regarding all psychoactive substances; further welcomes the recent report from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce calling for a revised policy framework based on the harms caused by substances; notes that within this framework it is expected that some strains of cannabis would be recognised as more harmful than the current law suggests, while others would be less so; and calls on the Government to give greater prominence to harm reduction as against crime reduction in compiling a new 10 year Drug Strategy in time for 2008.