In a bid to decriminalize cannabis in the United Kingdom, the country's leading doctors will this week be presented with the motion to legalise the drug, at the annual representative meeting of the British Medical Association.
Geoffrey Lewis, a former leading consultant from Leicester will lead the debate along with some of the most powerful and influential people in the medical industry.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, Lewis stated,
[caption id="attachment_394" align="alignright" width="300"]Too often the focus on drug use and addiction is from a criminal justice rather than a public health point of view. Doctors see first hand the damaging effects of a system which seeks to criminalise drug users rather than a treat their addiction.
Existing drug policy is contradictory and ineffective. The number of drug users has sky rocketed in the last 30 years despite the introduction of tougher and tougher drug laws. Our policy makers aren't prepared to have a sensible, rational, evidence-based debate on drugs.
...the current law isn't working and only by adopting a different approach can we regulate, educate and exert a level of quality control.
Cannabis Plants growing next to London Bridge[/caption]
While thoughts of cannabis decriminalization may be at an embryonic stage, this week's debate does indicate a forward step in the thinking of leading health experts in the United Kingdom. With verified evidence from the United States of the positive impact of the legalization of the drug, the United Kingdom could follow suit. However, experts believe that such drastic reforms in drug laws are unlikely to happen for some time yet.
The news of the British Medical Association debating the legality of cannabis comes days after cannabis plants were found growing alongside some of London's most famous landmarks. Unbeknownst to the general public, supporters of cannabis legalization, the #Feed420 campaign, cultivated the plants as a symbol of their disagreement with the current, ineffective structure of drug laws.
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