REPORT URGES REGULATED MARKET FOR CANNABIS TO REPLACE PROHIBITION

A report on cannabis prepared for next year's UN drug policy review
will suggest that a "regulated market" would cause less harm than the
current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to
reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as
taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored.

The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today
at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which
its authors suggest "challenge the received wisdom concerning
cannabis". It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a
UN-accredited NGO, for the 2009 UN strategic drug policy review.

There are, according to the report, now more than 160 million users
of the drug worldwide. "Although cannabis can have a negative impact
on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is
considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," according to the
report. "Historically, there have only been two deaths worldwide
attributed to cannabis, whereas alcohol and tobacco together are
responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per annum in the UK alone."

The report, compiled by a group of scientists, academics and drug
policy experts, suggests that much of the harm associated with
cannabis use is "the result of prohibition itself, particularly the
social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment." Policies that
control cannabis, whether draconian or liberal, appear to have little
impact on the prevalence of consumption, it concluded.

"In an alternative system of regulated availability, market controls
such as taxation, minimum age requirements, labelling and potency
limits are available to minimise the harms associated with cannabis
use," said the report.

It claimed that only through a regulated market could young people be
protected from the increasingly potent forms of cannabis, such as
skunk. It is intended that the report will form a blueprint for
nations seeking to develop a "more rational and effective approach to
the control of cannabis".

The authors suggest there is evidence that "the current system of
cannabis regulation is not working, and ... there needs to be a
serious rethink if we are to minimise the harms caused by cannabis use."

Last night, the report was welcomed by drug law reform organisations.
"The Beckley foundation are to be congratulated for the clarity of
their call for cannabis supply to be brought within government
control," said Danny Kushlick of Transform. "We look forward to the
same analysis being applied to heroin and cocaine."

The report is being launched at a two-day conference, which will be
attended by leading figures in the drugs policy world.

The conclusions are unlikely to be embraced by the government or the
Conservative party, both of which are opposed to relaxing
restrictions on cannabis use.