A group of MPs and peers have argued that people have the human right to take drugs and urged the government to consider reforming their policy and open a legal cannabis market. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform, whose members include former MI5 director general Baroness Mannigham-Buller and former chancellor Baron Lawson of Blaby, say the war on drugs has "failed" and that change is needed.

The European Convention on Human Rights over-rides laws which make drugs such as cannabis illegal, an all party parliamentary group report suggests

Drug users have a human right to feed their habit, MPs and peers have said, as they claimed international conventions banning drugs need to be reformed.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform said in a new report that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the rights to “private and family life” – could be deployed by drug users who face prosecution.

Regulation of banned substances “needs to reflect the supremacy of human rights conventions”, the report said.

A legal cannabis market should be tested and drug use decriminalised in order to try a radical new approach to drug use that focusses more on human rights laws, a group of MPs and peers has said.

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform called for an overhaul in global narcotics policy, saying the "war on drugs" and "blanket prohibition" approach had failed.

It said experiments into possible models of regulated markets for marijuana should be "encouraged" among United Nations countries including the UK. In a report, the group said:

When you set up a business taking care to choose the right partners and suppliers is an important step, which, if you get wrong can cost you dearly. In June I wrote about the MediPen CBD oil vaporiser and detailed how the product was a legal and effective way to experience the benefits of CBD oil in the UK.

Drug use among young adults continues to fall but their parents buck the trend

Middle-aged parents are increasingly smoking cannabis while their children are giving up the drug, a Home Office report has revealed.

Illegal drug use has steadily increased amongst the 40 and 59 age group over the last 18 years, according to the figures.

The proportion of those people who admit having taken drugs has risen from 2.5 per cent in 1996 to 3.6 per cent.

By comparison, drug use has fallen among the young, with 17.4 per cent saying they had taken drugs in 1996 compared to 13 per cent in 2014-15.

Why was medical cannabis banned in the UK? Katharine Quarmby uncovers the history.

It was 1971 when the UK Misuse of Drugs Act received Royal Assent, although it didn’t come wholly into force until 1973. The Act made it illegal for doctors to prescribe their patients cannabis tincture – the only form of cannabis permissible at that time. But, in a somewhat surreal move, despite the many thundering speeches about cannabis, the Act actually softened sanctions for the possession of cannabis for recreational purposes.

Medical cannabis is legal in places as diverse as Canada, Uruguay, Israel and Jamaica. But could legalisation work in the UK? 

On a cold spring evening I catch a fast train from London to Maidstone in Kent, to meet Clark French, a young man with multiple sclerosis. I’m joining him and his companions from the United Patients Alliance (UPA) on a road tour of the UK. The group French founded last year has one, on the face of it, simple mission: the legalisation of medical cannabis in the UK.

“Cannabis is like a medicine cabinet,” says Roger Pertwee, who was instrumental in some of the early cannabis trials for multiple sclerosis. “It has a lot of compounds in it that are novel and unique to cannabis. We have discovered 104 so far, but there are others. There are many potential uses that we have to investigate.”

The BBC, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, countless international publications, blogs and websites have published this ridiculous story.

Apparently, Novak Djokovic felt “dizzy” because he could smell cannabis during his Rogers Cup semi-final win over Jérémy Chardy in Montreal.  Now let’s be clear, the smell of cannabis comes from terpenes, not from cannabinoids.  It cannot get you high or dizzy.