A Highland arthritis sufferer was spared a jail sentence yesterday when a sheriff accepted he was growing cannabis in his home for medicinal purposes.

Instead, 42-year-old Alexander Macpherson was ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work after admitting cultivating the class B drug in the bedroom of his home at 11 Glenloy Street, Caol.

His counsel, advocate Shahid Latif, argued at Inverness Sheriff Court that there were exceptional circumstances which could allow the court not to impose a custodial sentence on his client, who also suffered from depression.

Macpherson told police when they raided his home on June 4, 2013, that he was not dealing the drug and that it was for his personal use due to his habit and medical problems.

With an estimated 8.4 per cent of Scots still using cannabis every year despite strict laws against it, has the time come to consider decriminalisation in the UK?

Several countries have already liberalised laws concerning use of the drug, and Canada could become the latest to legalise its sale following the recent election of Justin Trudeau as prime minister.

The Government has no plans to legalise or decriminalise cannabis

Mike Penning MP

The Liberal leader made legalisation of marijuana a key policy in his party’s manifesto, pledging to regulate the sale of the drug to ensure profits were diverted from organised crime.

Thanks to polymath and biopic-waiting-to-happen, Richard Branson, we know that, this week, the UN were in the final stages of preparing a call for the global decriminalisation of drugs. According to their report, evidence suggests decriminalisation would reduce the number of drug-related deaths without increasing incidents of drug abuse. As such, the Office of Drugs and Crime suggest governments have a duty to change policy to suit the best interests of their citizens.

So far, so sensible.

Were it not for one man’s efforts, the current cannabis landscape would look more like moonscape. There would be no conversations/blogs on cannabis as a curative medicine, there would be very little known pharmacology; certainly there would be much less clinical information regarding the world’s most captivating herb. That man is Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, professor of medicinal chemistry and Natural Products at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. He is aptly referred to as the “Father of Cannabis Research.”

The number of fires caused by the misuse of electrical equipment is at an all time high, figures reveal

Cannabis farms have been blamed for a surge in fires caused by people bypassing electricity meters to power growing equipment for free.

A total of 30 buildings caught fire as a result of the misuse of electrical equipment or leads in 2014/15, figures show.

The figures, released through a Freedom of Information request, are the highest in five years despite the overall number of fires in Merseyside has fallen in the past few years.

Despite its common association with lazy behaviour, cannabis is becoming popular in the long-distance running community, reports Chas Newkey-Burden

Legislation to ban new psychoactive substances in the UK is being rushed, MPs have warned.

The Home Affairs Committee said ministers were not working properly with their own expert drug advisers.

The MPs also said past governments' spending on education about the dangers of so-called legal highs had been "shockingly inadequate to date".

Policing minister Mike Penning said the government would consider the committee's criticism.

New psychoactive substances (NPS) are products chemically designed to mimic drugs that are already banned. Some 67 deaths in England and Wales last year were linked to their use.

• Psychoactive is not defined in a way which will satisfy the scientists or the courts
• No one is exactly sure which things are legal and which things are not
• No one has a clue how police are going to detect or enforce this

In an interesting example of the often Kafkaesque irrationality of the war on drugs, figures obtained by Release show that in the UK you are now far more likely to be prosecuted if you are caught carrying Class B or Class C drugs such as cannabis or benzodiazepines, than if you are found carrying class A drugs such as ecstasy, LSD, or cocaine, that the government considers to be more dangerous.

The festive season is nearly upon us. Which means so too is the period in which you have to buy gifts for extended family members you only see that one day of the year, because turning up without something for your five-year-old cousin is a real dick move.

If your budget doesn't quite stretch to whatever's flying off the shelves at Toys "R" Us this year, there are alternatives – like this: My First Grow, a "cannabis grow kit for kids". Retailing at £7.99, it contains hemp seeds, soil, a growing cup, instruction manual and a "My First Grow" sticker. Reassuringly, any toddler trying to smoke the produce from a My First Grow won't get high, because hemp carries very low quantities of the actual psychoactive chemical in cannabis, THC.