Independent on Sunday 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL, England

CANNABIS CONGRESS EXPLORES HOW TO LEGALISE

A UNIQUE symposium on the future of drugs legislation across the world
brought more than 150 prominent scientists, sociologists and lawyers to
London yesterday, writes Vanessa Thorpe.

Delegates from Europe, Australia and the United States met to discuss
"Regulating Cannabis: Options for Control in the 21st Century".

The event was specifically designed to take the debate into new territory
and develop "blueprints for post-decriminalisation regulation".

It had been billed by its organisers as the first conference to concentrate
on the practical problems of administering liberalised drug laws rather
than simply looking again at the arguments for change.

"This conference marks an historic turning point in the cannabis debate,"
said Mike Goodman, director of Release, the UK-based drug policy
organisation which co-hosted the symposium. "We now expect the debate to
shift away from 'should it be decriminalised?' to 'How cannabis should be
regulated responsibly'."

Mr Goodman believes yesterday's discussions were the first time that the
alternative and fringe groups involved in drugs law campaigning have met
with academics to work out a practical future.

Speakers included Dr Nicholas Dorn of the Institute for the Study of Drug
Dependence and Dr Geoffrey Guy, the British doctor whose company, GW
Pharmaceuticals, was granted a groundbreaking licence to farm cannabis for
scientific research purposes earlier this year.

They were joined by representatives of many of the smaller British groups
that have campaigned for change in the drugs laws for the last 30 years.
Academics from universities in Germany, Holland, Canada and Australia also
attended and the conference was addressed by Benedikt Fisher, the
co-ordinator of the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto.

The symposium was run by Release in tandem with the New York-based drugs
policy research institute, the Lindesmith Center, itself established in
1994 by the philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Institute.

The founder and director of the Lindesmith Center, Ethan Nadelmann told
delegates that he saw the conference as an inevitable step forward from the
campaign stage. "As the public demands legal access to cannabis for both
therapeutic and other responsible uses and as policy makers are forced to
take up the challenge of cannabis regulation, we plan to advise them on how
the drug can best be regulated."

The symposium was dubbed by delegates as the first international cannabis
congress and it had been prompted by recent moves towards decriminalisation
both in Britain and the United States.

Speakers from the Lindesmith Center explained how the situation for
therapeutic cannabis users in California has recently improved.

The city council in Oakland has given designated "cannabis buyers clubs"
special immune status as "officers of the city" in order to protect their
suppliers from federal prosecution.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan