Home Office minister Norman Baker called last week for medicinal cannabis to be legalised. This is the inside story of a campaign that began in 1999, started to gain real traction in 2011 and may finally come to fruition in 2014.

The last British politician to have the courage to follow the evidence on drugs policy and introduce radical reform was Margaret Thatcher. Now Norman Baker isn't normally in the same category as Thatcher but they have both demonstrated courage in the face of opposition from their colleagues and widespread bigotry and ignorance throughout parliament and Whitehall.

Norman Baker MP has taken the unprecedented step of calling for a rethink of the medicinal utilisation of cannabis. Never before has the UK spoken in such unbridled terms. The government, however, wasted no time in reaching for the stock reply: "We have no plans, *insert generic harm statement* we're winning the war on drugs...blah..." - Basically, any homogenised scrawl will do. We're now at a point where we can have sweepstakes and buzzword bingo based on the Home Office's vapidly generic response.

A father battling cancer claims cannabis helped cure him of the disease.

Trevor Smith, 54, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2012. Doctors told him that without immediate surgery to remove his bladder, prostate and lymph nodes - followed by chemotherapy - he would be dead within two years.

But worried about his quality of life after such radical surgery, he decided to try alternative therapies - and began taking cannabis oil after learning about it online.

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The MS Society Cymru says availability of drug is good news for sufferers in Wales

Wales has become the first country in the UK to approve a cannabis-based drug for sufferers of multiple sclerosis.

Health Minister Mark Drakeford has approved the cannabis-based oral spray Sativex to treat Welsh patients experiencing symptoms of muscle spasms and stiffness.

Consultants in rehabilitation medicine have hailed the recommendation as a “significant milestone for the treatment of spasticity”.

In the heart of Cumbria stands a two-bedroomed cottage wrapped in ivy that for half a century has been home to a lady named June. She makes a pot of tea in a cluttered kitchen brimming with fresh herbs in labelled jars, assorted saucepans and drying socks, then potters across the slate floor, and into a garden. Here lies what June calls "her private retreat". An overgrown rose bush dotted with apricot-coloured blossoms creeps over a rusting bench and from one of the many ceramic plant pots comes the scent of rosemary. At the back of the garden stands a decaying shed, lost beneath a white climbing hydrangea, and nestled behind this sits a small grow tent, which June tells me contains a single cannabis plant. She pulls down the zip to reveal the hidden green leaves.

Drug prevention charities have responded with exasperation after the Tories immediately slapped down calls from the drugs minister for the legalisation of cannabis in the UK for medicinal use and dismissed concerns that current drugs laws are overly restrictive.

Less than a week after Nick Clegg said "we are never going to win the war on drugs", senior Lib Dem MP Norman Baker called on the government to review the medicinal properties of cannabis, saying it can help those in need.

• Lib Dem minister has written to Health Secretary calling for review of drug
• Says he has seen 'more and more evidence' of its medicinal properties
• These include the side effects of cancer and Aids treatment
• But the Home Office and Department of Health have rejected his call 

By Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail

Published: 04:58 EST, 14 August 2014 | Updated: 18:08 EST, 14 August 2014

Liberalised drug laws should be introduced to legalise the widespread use of cannabis to relieve symptoms of certain medical conditions, including the side effects of chemotherapy, the drugs minister Norman Baker will say.

Amid concerns that "credible people" are having to break the law to secure the only substance that can help to relieve their condition, Baker is writing to the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to call for a review of the medicinal properties of cannabis.

By Joanna Simpson, Sky News Reporter

The Liberal Democrats are announcing that if they win the next General Election they will stop people found in possession of drugs for personal use being sent to jail.

The manifesto pledge will state that if no other offence has been committed an alternative sentence should be given instead of a prison term.

The effective decriminalisation they say would be more effective as it should be regarded as a health issue therefore the drugs and alcohol policy would be removed from the Home Office brief and given to the Department of Health.

The party states that each year more than 1,000 people in England in Wales are jailed for possession of drugs for their own personal use.

Nick Clegg has claimed "we are never going to win the war on drugs" in a powerful call for reform of the UK's "utterly senseless" drug laws.

Drug prevention charities have praised the Lib Dem leader for highlighting the current failure of existing policies after he pledged Friday to abolish prison sentences for the possession of drugs for personal use - even Class A substances like heroin and cocaine.

While Britain currently locks up youngsters and burdens them with criminal records for possessing small quantities of drugs – usually cannabis – the deputy prime minister has pledged to approach the problem as a health issue, rather than a law and order issue - stating that imprisoning someone for drug use "should no longer be an option."