It is not often that I find myself in agreement with Ann Widdecombe, but her synopsis of Mills’ (Reference Mills2003) previous study into cannabis in Britain, Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade and Prohibition states that it is ‘an amusing book to read, very well researched, and eminently readable’. This is true and so readers will be pleased to know that Cannabis Nation: Control and Consumption in Britain, 1928–2008 is of the same vintage. Over recent years there has been a flurry of activity relating to the legal status of cannabis in Britain. Debates have frequently focused, and rightly so in my opinion, on the scientific and political machinations through which classification decisions have been made. High-profile events such as the dismissal of Professor Nutt as Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) have added to the maelstrom. Yet what has so often been missing from these deliberations is a clear grasp of the origins of cannabis legislation; the historical dimension. Cannabis Britannica embarked on the voyage of filling this void. In doing so, it chartered the origins of cannabis legislation in Britain up to 1928. Analysing the situation from 1928 to 2008, Cannabis Nation continues the quest.

In this book, Mills’ aims revolve around analysing the ‘twin themes of consumption and control’, issues at the epicentre of controversies and discussion about cannabis. The subsequent chapters systematically set about this task and, in doing so, cover key moments in drug policy formulation – both domestic and international – in a chronological order divided into seven substantive chapters which cover five specific eras.

Chapters 2 and 3 detail most of the inter-war years (c.1928–c.1945). Discussion here centres on how cannabis consumption was primarily restricted to those passing through the major ports. Media reportage was a mix of moral panic and indignation. Unlike in subsequent years, there was some albeit limited medicinal use of the drug with a minor revival in the 1940s aligned to its painkilling and psychiatric benefits in wartime need. Through the lens of control, Mills reveals a number of interesting developments including how in the early-to-mid twentieth century, cannabis preparations were of little concern to the authorities, yet still became the focus of state responses due to debates about opium regulation with which it was often conflated. Inconsistency was the defining feature of responses to cannabis at this time. Thus, Mills demonstrates how, under the aegis of the League of Nations, prohibitionist policies were being championed in Egypt whilst in India they were busy circumnavigating existing controls in order to export the drug to lucrative markets elsewhere in the British empire.

Chapters 4 and 5 span the years 1945–1961/2, a time of rapid and rising immigration. That cannabis should become a preoccupation for the gaze of the state, Mills points out, was down to racial ‘othering’ and the association of its deleterious effects in some of the outposts of the empire; a theme that gained traction as the Empire withered and more and more of its citizens settled in Britain. It was in this atmosphere that Victorian beliefs that cannabis could be a ‘wonder drug’ dissipated. Domestically, the decline of Empire brought with it new challenges, and policing cannabis became a tool, Mills demonstrates, to deal with youths (white or black) who were thought to be a threat to the existing social order. In extreme circumstances, cannabis was planted on suspects of crimes when none could be found via searches. It is no coincidence, as Mills explains in chapter 6 (1962–1971), that organisations such as SOMA and Release were founded to address the challenges posed to civil liberties by the rigorous policing of cannabis consumers. Such perversions were rare, however, and the picture throughout the UK reveals that despite some high-profile cases in London, police forces dealt with a small number of cases in any given year. For Mills, the 1960s are a defining era in cannabis consumption. Continuing immigration and heightened levels and breadth of consumption ensured cannabis became embroiled in the politics of the time as groups of young people chose consumption as a sign of solidarity with Britain's oppressed former colonial subjects. It became a ‘symbol of a counter-culture’ that sparked a significant amount of activity in both policy and advocacy circles.

In chapter 7 (1971–1997), Mills examines how the quarter of a decade following the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act consolidated cannabis consumption as a pastime for an increasing cross-section of the population. In many ways, this was a reverse of Elaisian civilising processes (Elias, Reference Elias2000), as a perceived working class behaviour trait – cannabis smoking – permeated the entire social spectrum. Changes in consumption in the 1970s, 1980s, into the 1990s and on to the present were matched in terms of control. Here and in chapter 8 (New Labour years 1997–2008) Mills shows how policy responses to cannabis have been developed in the abstract as policy makers used action on the drug to address other pressing social issues such as immigration, law and order, civil liberties and public health. Thus the incessant tweaking of cannabis legislation by professional legislators had little impact on the policy on the ground as the police remain the ‘key power-brokers’ in matters pertaining to its control: illustrated in the 2004 reclassification from class B to class C where the police successfully lobbied to ensure cannabis possession remains an arrestable offence (May et al., Reference May, Duffy, Warburton and Hough2007).

Although not its primary focus, the book covers key medical cannabis debates, heavily fortified with data to support the various claims made. The key strength, however, is its highly detailed and well-chosen anecdotes. Those around consumption are particularly noteworthy including, on page 17, an early (perhaps the first) recorded incident of what novice (and indeed some more experienced) cannabis consumers will have experienced as the ‘whitey’ – an adverse reaction to smoking cannabis.

Overall, anyone with an interest in cannabis and indeed, illicit drugs more widely would find the book of interest. The meticulous research frequently challenges commonly held perceptions, such as how archetypal drug warrior Harry Anslinger was perhaps a more complex individual than his detractors are prepared to admit. For instance, Mills shows how on the world stage Anslnger was prepared to acknowledge that products derived from cannabis ‘could be thought to have possibilities for the treatment of certain mental diseases’ (p. 112). This is a departure from the caricature of Anslinger as the ardent drug warrior constantly preoccupied with notions of ‘reefer madness’. If I have one criticism of Cannabis Nation, it is that Mills is at times guilty of the criticisms he levels at other histories of cannabis in the UK. He decries that, in discussing cannabis, authors are frequently prone to making ‘breathless statements’. Mills, rest assured, is not short of a few of his own, but this is a minor quibble for what is otherwise, in the words of Widdecombe, an amusing and eminently readable piece of work.