BRITAIN’S most senior police officer admitted yesterday that there was widespread public confusion about the use of cannabis because of changes in the drug laws.

Possession of the drug will be downgraded from Class B to Class C from January 29, but Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said it was clear that many people did not realise it would still be illegal.

In a radio interview he said: “There is a massive amount of muddle about where we are with cannabis. The possession of cannabis, the use of cannabis, is still against the law in this country.”

The Commissioner said: “You are committing an offence if you have it in your possession and if you use it. I think that needs to be made absolutely clear.”

Under guidelines issued last autumn anyone caught with the drug for personal use will be given a warning and have the drug confiscated.

Police will make an arrest in special circumstances, including the blatant use of the drug in public, users who are under 17, habitual offenders or where the drug is found close to a school.

Sir John said that the new rules would have to be publicised in a very simplified form to schools. Many police officers had raised with him the need to get the message across to the public as soon as possible. Asked if he felt personally that it was right to downgrade cannabis to Class C, Sir John replied that he was against the legalisation of drugs.

This week the Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs, which supported the changes on cannabis, was asked to consider new evidence on links between the drug and psychosis published in The Times.

Robin Murray, the head of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, told The Times that inner-city psychiatric services were nearing a crisis point, with up to 80 per cent of all new psychotic cases reporting a history of cannabis use.

Asked to comment on Sir John’s remarks, a Home Office spokesman said that a £1 million campaign was being launched next week to explain the changes to young people.

The spokesman said that possible links between the drug and psychosis had been considered by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and it had concluded there was no evidence that cannabis caused mental illness.

He said: “Any new evidence since their report on cannabis doesn’t affect the overall weight of evidence on health issues.”

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