BRITISH PARLIAMENT URGES: END MARIJUANA ARRESTS

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Britain moved a step closer to making marijuana
possession a non-arrestable offense today as the Home Affairs Select
Committee of Parliament endorsed a proposal to sharply reduce
marijuana penalties. The idea was put forth last fall by U.K. Home
Secretary David Blunkett and was endorsed in March by the Advisory
Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the government's scientific body on
drug policy.

Today's committee report, the result of a 10-month-long
investigation, marks a key step in the government's consideration of
this major policy change.

Blunkett has proposed that marijuana be "downgraded" from Class B
to Class C, the "least harmful" category of illegal drugs under
British law. Class B includes drugs of "intermediate" danger,
including barbiturates and amphetamines. Class C drugs include Valium
and anabolic steroids. Such drugs remain illegal, but possession
generally brings a warning or fine rather than arrest and jail.

In the United States, marijuana remains in Schedule I, the category
reserved for substances such as ****** and ***, which are deemed the
most dangerous.

The report, available at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/
cm200102/cmselect/cmhaff/318/31802.htm, urges a shift in anti-drug
policy to focus on abuse and misuse rather than on occasional users
who do little harm to themselves or society. Regarding marijuana, the
document points out the damage done by excessively strict laws,
arguing that "we do not believe there is anything to be gained by
exaggerating its harmfulness. On the contrary, exaggeration undermines
the credibility of messages that we wish to send regarding more
harmful drugs."

The parliamentary group's conclusions echo those of the Advisory
Council, which stated, "The high use of cannabis is not associated
with major health problems for the individual or society." The council
also noted that the addiction potential of marijuana is "well below
nicotine and alcohol."

"The British government is taking a thoughtful, science-based
approach to reconsidering its drug laws," commented Bruce Mirken,
director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana
Policy Project. "In this country, policymakers regularly commission
expert reports and then ignore them when they don't like the findings.
>From the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse in 1972 to
the 1999 Institute of Medicine review of the data on medical
marijuana, experts have repeatedly challenged the assumptions
underlying marijuana prohibition. The British are listening to their
experts. Maybe someday the U.S. will do the same."

-----------------------------