Britain to review drugs downgrading for cannabis

THE British Government is to review the controversial decision which made possession of cannabis a largely non-arrestable offence, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

He told MPs that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will consider moving the drug from class C back to class B.

Cannabis was class B until it was downgraded in January 2004 by former home secretary David Blunkett, placing it alongside certain prescription tranquillisers and body-building steroids.