UK to Get Tough on Pot

Brown will reclassify marijuana, stiffen penalties just 3 years after Blair relaxed them
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 4, 2008 9:14 AM CDT
UK to Get Tough on Pot
Gordon Brown with George W. Bush at the NATO conference in Bucharest. Brown is personally fighting to tighten cannabis possession laws in the UK.   (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

The British government is set to tighten the law on marijuana, reclassifying it as a more dangerous drug and imposing a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for possession. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is determined to designate pot as a class B drug, only three years after Tony Blair downgraded it to class C. 

Brown's plan goes against the recommendation of Parliament's advisory council on drugs, which supports keeping marijuana as a class C drug, reports the Independent. In 2004, the Blair government relaxed pot laws to allow police to concentrate on the fight against harder drugs. Since then possession of marijuana, while still a crime, has led to confiscation and a warning rather than a criminal prosecution. (More cannabis stories.)

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