Essex: Plea to repeal cannabis laws (From Gazette)

Essex: Plea to repeal cannabis laws

10:53am Tuesday 27th March 2007 in News

A campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis has called for the drug to be regulated rather than being kept illegal.

Don Barnard, press office for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, was reacting to a new report published in medical journal the Lancet which calls for the current ABC system of ranking drugs to be scraped.

The report, by Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council says that legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco are actually more dangerous than cannabis and drugs like ecstasy.

Mr Barnard, of Witham, said the report shows that cannabis should be regulated in a similar way to alcohol and tobacco so that children will be protected from it and to avoid dealers mixing the drug with other substances and increasing the risk to users.

Mr Barnard said: "At present it is difficult for people under the age of 18 to get access to alcohol and tobacco, but anyone can get hold of cannabis and other illegal drugs. If it was regulated we could stop young people getting hold of the drugs and ensure the drugs in circulation are not cut with dangerous things like glass, which has happened in the past."