A BODGED cannabis farmer has been spared jail because he was useless at growing the crop.

Stephen Thompson was caught with 30 plants, a high powered lamp and an oil filled radiator hidden in the loft of his home in Liverpool Road, Penwortham.

The plants were riddled with mites and the lighting was so poor forensic scientists said the crop would not have survived to full maturity.

Recorder Craig Sephton, sentencing, told him: “You were naive, stupid and useless at growing cannabis.”

Bristol West MP Stephen Williams says it's his personal wish to give cannabis the same legal status as alcohol and tobacco.

He argues that if you look at the hierarchy of harm caused by substances, you could not say cannabis was more harmful than alcohol.

"It terms of the damage alcohol does, in terms of domestic violence and crime, its far more harmful than cannabis," he says.

On whether this could lead to an increased culture of drug use, comparable to alcohol, he said that the main problem behind binge drinking was a pricing issue, with supermarkets able to sell alcohol too cheaply.

GW Pharmaceutical (GWPH: NASDAQ) has quietly outperformed most of its fellow NASDAQ companies during 2015 and Technical420 has been recommending them the whole time. GWPH is up over 10% today and over 36% this year. The company manufactures and sells the first prescribed cannabis-based medicine in over 20 countries and its deep product pipeline will lead to incremental revenue growth for years to come.

A pharmaceutical, not marijuana, company

It really is true; as the rest of the world sails along with progress in their sights, the UK remains anchored to the barnacles of prohibition. Don't fall for the false rhetoric of compassion that the UK drug policy has forged - we still maintain a stance of indiscriminate criminalisation. Like many, I have come to realise that the criminalisation of any person for their substance use is, frankly, a barbarous act - a sharpened shiv wielded for political intent.

Cannabis plants have been spotted sprouting in public places up and down the UK, a country where the plant is categorized as a Class B drug and possession alone can lead to a five year prison sentence. The majestic herb can be found humbly sunning itself near some of the nation’s most iconic locations in central London, such as the BBC headquarters, Tower Bridge and The Shard.

UK: What’s it like to turn your science into 90 minutes of TV? The researchers involved in Channel 4’s Drugs Live share their experience.

Scientists are increasingly encouraged to share their findings with wider audiences through public engagement activities like science fairs, festivals, comedy, and radio and TV broadcasting. Activities like this can be very worthwhile, both for the public and the scientists, but they do present some challenges.

The Liberal Democrats have confirmed that their 2015 manifesto will contain radical proposals for drug policy reform. Many of the measures echo the approach taken in Portugal, where a policy of decriminalisation was put into practice in 2001.

Drugs policy expert Susanne MacGregor from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explains what reforms like these would mean for the UK.

What is Portugal’s drugs policy?

In 2001, Portugal reformed its drug policies to address public concern around problematic drug use, especially intravenous heroin use. A government-appointed expert commission proposed decriminalising possession of any illicit drug for personal use, which is defined as the amount an average user would consume in a ten-day period.

Channel 4’s Drugs Live programme, broadcast last night, promised to examine what cannabis does to the brain. Many of us had already seen the clips of Jon Snow struggling after a massive dose of high strength marijuana (the equivalent of forcing a teetotaller to down a bottle of vodka and then asking him how he feels).

But beyond the effects of cannabis on the brain, isn’t it time for a wider discussion on the potential effects of safe, regulated cannabis consumption on society?

How much is cannabis worth these days? According to the Institute for Economic and Research, up to £900m could be raised annually through taxation of regulated cannabis market.

A new political party is planning to field as many as 100 candidates at the general election to force the issue of cannabis legalisation centre stage.

Cista – Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol – is inspired by legalisation of the drug in some US states. The party’s election candidates will include Paul Birch, who co-founded Bebo before it was sold to AOL for $850m (£548m) in 2008 and says he is investing up to £100,000 in the venture.

Other candidates around the UK are soon to be named; this week the party said Shane O’Donnell, a former Conservative party activist, would stand against Labour’s Keir Starmer and the Green party leader, Natalie Bennett, in the London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.