MINISTERS face a dilemma over the legal status of cannabis after a government review ducked the question of whether it should be reclassified and targeted with renewed priority by police.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which has reassessed the Government’s decision of two years ago to downgrade cannabis, has backed away from recommending that cannabis be reclassified from a class C to a class B drug. Its report has been submitted to Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, and he will reflect on it over the Christmas recess before reaching a decision early next year, according to one of his aides.

The end of the review comes as an inquest opens into the death of a woman who had been taking part in trials of an experimental cannabis-based drug. Rene Anderson, 70, was given Sativex to ease symptoms of diabetic neuropathy, a generalised nerve pain in her hands and feet, Richard Starkie, her family’s solicitor, said yesterday.

Mr Starkie said that Mrs Anderson developed psychosis shortly after taking the drug, but GW Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Sativex, insist that the drug has been “well-tolerated” by patients in extensive trials, and that they were “surprised and disappointed” that Mr Starkie had pre- empted the coroner’s findings.

Mrs Anderson was admitted to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield on March 3 last year, and died ten weeks later after developing pneumonia and kidney failure. Mr Starkie said: “The inquest will look at whether her psychosis was caused by her taking the cannabis-based drug and whether that psychosis then led to her physical decline and death.”

Mrs Anderson’s daughter, Jackie Sadler, said: “We are still in the dark as to how she became so ill and why she died, and none of the medical experts involved has yet been able to answer our questions.”

The drug has not been granted a marketing authorisation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and doctors can prescribe it only on a named- patient basis. There was speculation yesterday that the advisory council has concluded that health risks do not justify the reclassification of cannabis.

Its failure to make a firm re-commendation means that Mr Clarke must take a political decision without the option of simply endorsing the findings of a group of experts. He set up the review weeks before the general election, asking the council to advise him on scientific research into the effects of stronger varieties of “skunk” cannabis. This neutralised political rows over cannabis during the election.

Senior Home Office officials believe that public debate on drugs has become “trapped” on the question of legalisation and would welcome clarity on the status of cannabis, but police chiefs have urged keeping the law as it is and said that, if cannabis is reclassified as a class B drug, its possession should be enforced with a fixed penalty notice in order not to divert police officers’ time.

The original decision to downgrade the classification of cannabis was taken by David Blunkett, the previous Home Secretary, and was again based on a report by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Mr Clarke asked the council to look at the issue again in light of studies into links between the regular use of cannabis and mental illness.

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