UK's Leading Pharmacological Expert on Cannabis To Call for Legalization

[RainDog]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/358db9d6-bf57-11df-965a-00144feab49a.html

Roger Pertwee, professor of neuropharmacology at Aberdeen University, will on Tuesday tell the British Science Festival in Birmingham that making cannabis available from licensed outlets would reduce drug-related crime and cut the risk of users moving on to more dangerous drugs.

“At the moment cannabis is in the hands of criminals,” he will say. “We are allowed to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. Cannabis, if it is handled properly, is not going to be more dangerous.”

Although research has shown cannabis may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia in particularly vulnerable individuals, this danger does not apply to the general population, he will say. The risk could be reduced by setting a minimum age of 21 for consuming cannabis or requiring individuals to obtain a licence to buy it.

The article is very short - but behind a free registration wall.

Pertwee was involved in the development of Sativex for MS patients - so he has a pretty good idea of the way in which cannabinoids function - and an understanding of the medical uses of cannabis extracts.

[RainDog]

1. update on Pertwee/UK cannabis issue

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/68656,news-comment,news-politics,give-licenses-to-cannabis-users-says-expert-science-festival-drugs

Pertwee's recommendation to "license" cannabis users (does the UK "license" beer drinkers?)...

comes almost a year after the Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson fired Professor David Nutt, the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and the government's top drugs advisor, after he suggested that drugs such as cannabis and LSD were less harmful than alcohol.

Prior to that, the Labour government had upgraded cannabis from a Class C to a Class B drug against the advice of the ACMD. So it was no surprise when another seven members of the ACMD resigned after Nutt's dismissal - either citing Nutt's shoddy treatment or the government's prohibitionist attitude towards drugs.

Personally, I find the idea of an individual "license" to be ridiculous - just another indication of how irrational people are about the issue of cannabis. Liquor stores require licenses. They are required to abide by the law and not sell to minors. They are not required to screen all customers for signs of mental illness - because the idea is ludicrous - just as it is for cannabis.