Skip Main Navigation outline goes here The Lancet, Volume 371,
Issue 9609, Pages 300 - 301, 26 January 2008
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60162-2Cite or Link Using DOI  UK
cannabis classification: a flawed debate  Charlie Lloyd aEmail
Address Louisa Degenhardt and colleagues (Nov 3, p 1541)1 refer
to “more severe penalties” and the “reimposition of criminal
penalties” consequent on moving cannabis up from class C to
class B in the UK. Your earlier Editorial2 also suggested that
reclassification could lead to arrest and, perhaps, a jail
sentence. These statements are misleading. The legal difference
between cannabis as a class B or class C drug is small.
Legislation introduced at the same time as reclassification in
2004 meant that the only remaining difference was the maximum
sentence for possession (5 and 2 years for class B and C,
respectively). However, a study by the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation3 showed that only 2% of cannabis-possession offenders
received a custodial sentence. Moreover, of those who did get c