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Drugs (Reclassification and Roadside Testing)

I want to speak against this attempt to bring in serious measures via a ten-minute Bill. There are issues to be debated—about the connection of cannabis to mental disease and also the effect of cannabis on people’s driving ability—but if we are going to change the law, we need a much wider discussion than we can have in the context of a ten-minute Bill. That is the main reason why I am opposing the measure today. I would like to point out to the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) that the matters that he has put before the House are not quite as straightforward as he has led the House to believe. The reclassification of cannabis was done by the Government on the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, chaired by Sir Michael Rawlins. It is a distinguished committee that is quite broad in its outlook. It contains many professional people, who have given the Government advice via the ACMD. There has been an outcry recently from people who want to reclassify cannabis, back from C to B. That reclassification would add to the confusion that already concerns the hon. Gentleman. The facts are quite clear. Since the reclassification was established, there has been no increase in the misuse of cannabis. If anything, the misuse of cannabis is dipping; it is going down. The reason for that is that the Moroccans have put a lot of effort into stopping their people growing cannabis and we have managed to put a stop to the routes used to smuggle cannabis into Britain. By the way, the cannabis from Morocco contained about 5 per cent. tetrahydrocannabinol. That would not have the effects that the hon. Gentleman has described to the House today. I simply ask him: which cannabis is he talking about? Is he talking about Moroccan cannabis, or the fact that stopping the importation of Moroccan cannabis has led to Vietnamese criminals growing cannabis in this country? Those criminals are growing skunk and super-skunk, which contains 15 per cent. tetrahydrocannabinol. I repeat: which cannabis is he talking about? It amazes me that in the cannabis debate, we do not distinguish between the different species of cannabis. We talk about cannabis as though it were a single substance, but it clearly is not. The Science and Technology Committee, of which I am a member, has just carried out a detailed inquiry into the ABC classification of drugs, which is what the hon. Gentleman has been referring to. After taking a lot of evidence—I stress the word ““evidence?, because our recommendations were evidence-based—we concluded that whether a drug is classed A, B or C has little impact on what people out on the street are doing or thinking, so I do not think that it matters whether cannabis is in class C or class B, when it comes to whether the general public use—or rather, misuse—it. The majority of the general public do not know anything about the classification of drugs. What is important is the harm that different species of cannabis cause. I think that the usage of cannabis will go down, because young people are learning that if it has high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol in it—the level could be as high as 15 per cent.—it causes mental health problems, but it does that to a small number of people, not to the public in general. There is a lot more research to be done on the subject, and it is far too early to bring such a Bill before the House. There is another problem with roadside testing. I visited a scientific laboratory run by the Home Office near St. Albans about 18 months ago, and it is doing a considerable amount of work on the impact of drugs on the ability to drive. I point out to the hon. Gentleman that the problem is not just cannabis, but a wide selection of drugs, and it is not just illegal drugs that affect the ability to drive; over-the-counter drugs and prescription drugs do, too, so the matter is complex. It is not easy to test for drugs with what he calls ““drugalysers? at the roadside. If he had carried out some research, had talked to the chief scientific adviser at the Home Office, or had visited the laboratory at St. Albans, he would have found that the issue is not as simple as he presents it. It is too early to introduce drug testing at the roadside. The people to whom we talked at the laboratory run by the Home Office near St. Albans told us that cognitive tests can measure the ability to drive better than any of the instruments currently available, such as the breathalyser, which is used for alcohol testing. Simply testing a person’s ability to walk in a straight line or to stand on one leg is far better than some of the instruments currently available. I also point out to the hon. Gentleman that cannabis stays in the blood for up to 30 days, because it is a lipophilic substance absorbed by the fatty tissues of our body. Smoking a spliff will affect the mind for just a few hours, not for 30 days. I put it to him that it would be unfair to criminalise someone, having detected cannabis in them, because they were driving a car 20 days after they had smoked one spliff. Would he criminalise such a person for driving? I oppose the Bill, largely on the grounds that the subject should not be dealt with in a ten-minute Bill, because the whole House should be part of this discussion. I also oppose it on the grounds that the measures that the hon. Gentleman has put to the House are impractical, at least at this stage of the development of the subject. Question put, pursuant to Standing Order No. 23 (Motions for leave to bring Bills and nomination of Select Committees at commencement of public business), and agreed to. Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Christopher Chope, Mr. James Clappison, David T.C. Davies, Philip Davies, Mr. Nigel Evans, Mr. Mark Hoban, Mr. Greg Knight, Mr. Humfrey Malins, Mike Penning, Miss Ann Widdecombe, Mr. David Wilshire and Ann Winterton.