If the government were to reclassify drugs ....
... should alcohol and tobacco be included?
Here are a few opinions on the subject:
Home Office advisers have warned that the current drug classifications bear little relationship to their health risks
Sunday August 6, 2006
The Observer
Karol Sikora
Society makes strange rules. Its inconsistencies occur when these rules are introduced over wide time scales. The logic would classify tobacco and alcohol in the same bracket as cannabis and some other recreational drugs but, realistically, it would be impossible to change things now. Imagine going to the doctor to get a prescription for a glass of wine. Instead, the current policy of education, restriction of availability and punitive taxation seems the best way forward. And maybe we should reconsider a more liberal attitude towards some recreational drugs.
· Karol Sikora is a cancer specialist
Noreena Hertz
Tobacco is more addictive than heroin. More people die from alcohol and tobacco-related causes than die from 'illegal' drug use. Yet a cocaine dealer can be prosecuted for causing a client's death, while tobacco and alcohol company directors cannot. Incorporating tobacco and alcohol in the drug classification scheme would help address such inconsistency. Drug classifications shouldn't just be about helping the consumer identify the dangers associated with whatever they take. They should also be about determining what kind of punishment those who peddle drugs should face.
· Noreena Hertz is an academic
Sarfaraz Manzoor
To reclassify alcohol and tobacco would be pointless. It is obvious that drinks and cigarettes kill far more people than cocaine and cannabis, but I do not believe that reclassification would prevent people from smoking and drinking. If we want to reduce the deaths from smoking, we need to focus more on ensuring children do not start smoking. Similarly, with drinking, we have a culture where drinking is considered social and binge drinking has become commonplace. What is required is for this culture to be challenged. We need to reclassify what is seen as normal.
· Sarfraz Manzoor is a writer and broadcaster
Sunder Katwala
The current system is illogical, but a debate is difficult when shifting cannabis's grade generates a hysterical reaction. Governments should have two ambitions - to minimise the social harms which arise from addictive drugs and to warn individuals about harming their health. As MP John Mann has suggested, these criteria should be at the heart of classification. Health campaigns, warnings and restrictions do and should apply to tobacco and alcohol too - and have done much to reduce the social acceptability of tobacco.
· Sunder Katwala is general secretary of the Fabian Society
