A former head of the AFP has called for drug use to be decriminalised.

Mick Palmer, who was the Australian Federal Police commissioner for seven years, said with the number of arrests and seizures increasing each year, it had become clear prohibition wasn't working. 

He told Neil Mitchell while policing had improved, it's had little effect on reducing the supply of drugs.

Mr Palmer said society couldn't police its way out of the problem.

"I think we need to be prepared to look at decriminalisation," he said on 3AW Mornings.

"The ways in which we would regulate the market and take the market place away from organised crime and criminal market place.

Health authorities have approved the use of cannabis derived medication Elixinol - on a one-off basis - to treat a coma patient encountering ongoing seizures. But does it work?

The drug was approved on compassionate grounds by Associate Minister of Health Hon Peter Dunne, to be administered by clinicians treating Wellington patient Alex Renton.

The Science Media Centre contacted experts for comment. 

Assoc Prof Michelle Glass, Head - Department of Pharmacology, University of Auckland, comments:

A leading Australian substance abuse expert is pleading for moderation in policies on e-cigarettes.

The University of Queensland’s Professor Wayne Hall said current law on electronic nicotine delivery systems placed researchers – and people who wanted to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking – in a difficult situation.

E-cigarettes containing nicotine cannot legally be sold in Australia.

”We should not have to choose between banning e-cigarettes completely and selling them alongside children’s candy,” Professor Hall said.

Professor Hall is an advisor to the World Health Organization and the director of UQ’s Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research.

Portugal is one of the first countries in the world to decriminalise drug possession. In 2001, Portugal considered holding of small quantities of drugs as a public health issue. So instead of jail time, the drug user would get a referral to the local shrink. Many predicted catastrophic outcomes, but in reality, the drug overdose deaths have come down

An Australian pharmaceutical company, the most recent "pot stock" to trade on the ASX, has become one of the first local players to be granted a license to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes. 

MGC Pharmaceuticals, which is operated out of Israel, will be allowed to grow, process, import and export cannabis from Slovenia, where the government has legalised the practice.

Fellow Australian cannabis producer, AusCann, secured permission to grow and export marijuana on Norfolk Island in May. The difference between the two producers is MGC hopes to produce a product for the cosmetic industry whereas AusCann is targetting pain relief. 

Marijuana has inspired the medical community and the investing community, with state legalization spurring interest in companies related to the drug. Yet many fear that the tiny companies that dominate the marijuana industry right now aren't good investments and carry too much risk for the typical investor.

With that in mind, we asked three Motley Fool contributors to weigh in on their views about whether marijuana is or will be a place to invest in the near future. See what they have to say and then weigh in with your comments below.

Queensland is set to join a New South Wales-led push for medicinal cannabis trials, but some parents of children suffering from epilepsy say they just want to skip that process and continue to administer the controversial drug.

Both major parties in Queensland politics have claimed credit for the upcoming trial, which would be a first step towards legalising the practice.

State Health Minister Cameron Dick told Parliament on Thursday that, as of Monday, medicinal cannabis had been rescheduled by the Therapeutic Goods Administration from a schedule 9 poison to a schedule 4 medicine for therapeutic use only.

In a world first, neuroscientists at Flinders University have identified a series of chemical tools that can either increase or inhibit the release of neurotransmitters by neurons, the cells of the brain.

While not yet applied to a specific disease, the discovery has a wide range of potential pharmaceutical applications in neurological conditions ranging from schizophrenia to depression.

A team led by Associate Professor Damien Keating, a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellow in the Department of Human Physiology and the Centre for Neuroscience at Flinders, has published a paper on the action of a protein called dynamin in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Disruptive businesses make the headlines, but they also face real risks. Why you need to tread carefully around the law

Years ago, I worked as a waitress at a popular independent brew pub with an origin story that was the stuff of local legend. The proprietor had bought a heritage building, outfitted it with expensive brewing equipment and hired a full-time brewmaster to develop premium ales and lagers. He had just one problem: It wasn’t yet legal for an establishment in Ontario to produce and sell its own beer on-site. He started the business anyway, shilling sandwiches and sodas until the law changed and allowed the pub to sell the suds that have made it a prosperous business for nearly 30 years.

Perth, May 28, 2015 AEST (ABN Newswire) - PhytoTech Medical Limited (ASX:PYL) ("PYL" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that production of MMJ Bioscience Limited's ("MMJ") proprietary, Good Manufacturing Practice ("GMP") produced cannabidiol ("CBD") capsules commenced in Switzerland on 25 May 2015.

Highlights:

- Production of MMJ's GMP-produced CBD food supplement capsules commenced 25 May 2015 - Capsules to be branded and sold as SativolTM

- SativolTM will be the first product launched by Satipharm (an MMJ subsidiary) under exclusive development alliance with Swiss partners Ai Fame gmbH and Gelpell AG