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The BBC Reports on a new study recently published in The Lancet, calling the current UK drug category system “unfit for purpose”, and proposing a replacement. The suggested replacement order drugs on the basis of nine factors of harm, such as dependence and social damage, which are weighed to form a single value. As a benchmark of the level of harm, familiar legal drugs tobacco and alcohol have been added to the index (see above). The scientists involved believe that the arbitrary nature of the current system “undermine(s) trust in warnings about the danger of drugs.”

The Academy of Medical Sciences group is currently reviewing drug research for the government, and plans to put its recommendations to ministers in the autumn. However, it does not appear the government is planning on acting on any new recommendations:

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: “We have no intention of reviewing the drug classification system.
“Our priority is harm reduction and to achieve this we focus on enforcement, education and treatment.”

It is likely that government adoption of the new category system would be blocked on the basis of the incongruity between social acceptance and legality of drugs versus the drugs’ harm. It is also possible that the government is worried that such information would lead to a shift in drug use from controlled and taxed drugs to those that provide them no revenue. The UK government has significantly higher taxation on alcohol and tobacco than most other European countries, and such tax is a significant source of revenue. In the period of 2005-2006, the UK collected a combined £16 billion from tobacco and alcohol tax.