New penalties for cannabis users announced

Those caught with marijuana for a second time will be fined £80 and after three strikes will be arrested when drug returns to class B A man makes a cannabis joint in Wuerzburg, Germany. Photograph: Daniel Karmann Cannabis users face new penalties when the drug is upgraded to class B from January next year, the home secretary said today. Jacqui Smith said that those caught with marijuana for a second time would be fined £80 and after three strikes would be arrested. The drug was downgraded to class C in 2004, but fears over the increased use of stronger "skunk" strains among young people prompted a policy review and U-turn. Smith said she was "extremely concerned" about skunk, and its impact on mental health, especially if young people started to use it at an early age or "binge smoke". Skunk contains higher levels of THC, the... [read full story]