In June 2006, Costa criticised the decision on the part of the UK government to downgrade cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C. This policy decision was later reversed by the UK parliament which requested that Cannabis be scheduled to Class B within the UK Misuse of Drugs Act. Cost has underlined in his writing that the confusion surrounding the classification of cannabis may have had a negative impact on young people within the UK who may well have been confused themselves as to the legal position of the drug. He has emphasised to that the lack of leadership from governments in how they are tackling their drug problem can have a negative impact on the nature of the drug problem within those countries. In light of the obligations of signatories to the global drug control conventions he went further and stated that "it is fundamentally wrong for countries to make cannabis control dependent on which party is in government." After a brief period of declassification, Britain later reversed its policies and upgraded cannabis to a Class B drug again in 2009. In 2010 Antonio Maria Costa was awarded the Nils Bejerot prize in recognition of his international contribution to drugs policy and practice. This award is named after the person who many regard as the architect of the Swedish government's zero tolerance policy on drugs misuse.