Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what date the most recent assessment of the classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 was conducted; and what evidence base was considered in reaching the conclusions of that assessment.

The Government has not made an assessment of the classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Ministers have a statutory obligation to receive and consider advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (‘ACMD’) before seeking to make changes to the classification of drugs. It is our understanding that the most recent assessment of the classification of cannabis was undertaken in 2008. This followed a review by the ACMD in that year.

The then government published its response to the ACMD review setting out the reason for its classification decision at that time.