More Australians are taking illicit drugs than are Britons on average, but people in Britain are still smoking tobacco and abusing alcohol in higher numbers, a University of Adelaide report has found.

And while Australians were more likely to drink alcohol, they were less likely to have a drinking problem than Americans or Britons, the research based on global data found.

About 3.7 per cent of Australians were considered to have an alcohol use disorder, compared with 12.1 per cent in the United Kingdom and 7.8 per cent in the United States.

When it came to illicit drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy and opioid-type drugs (medications such as codeine and morphine), however, a higher percentage of Australians indulged.

BRITISH drugmaker GW Pharma­ceuticals yesterday posted a widened half-year, pre-tax loss, as it invested more in its cannabis-based Epidiolex treatment for childhood epilepsies.

The pharmaceutical company, dual listed on Aim in London and the Nasdaq in New York, posted a pre-tax loss of £13.7m for the six months ending March, which widened from £10.6m a year ago.

Revenue fell to £14.3m from £15m, meanwhile, as research and development costs rose from £21m to £30.5m.

However, GW Pharmaceuticals said it had raised $167.8m (£110.4m) in its offering and has high hopes for its epilepsy treatment.

Using a drug based on a chemical found in the cannabis plant to treat epilepsy has been controversial to say the least. An early study from the US may lend more weight to its scientific standing, however. The study suggests that the drug is safe, well-tolerated and effective.

An early American study has assessed the safety of Epidiolex – the drug made from cannabidiol (CBD), a compound derived from cannabis.

The study was conducted by Dr Orrin Devinsky, director of the New York University Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. It was designed to test the safety of Epidiolex and how well people could tolerate it.

GrassRoots: The Cannabis Revolution, is a feature-length documentary exploring the medicinal use of cannabis, the patients involved & the campaign to change UK law. With unrestricted access to activists/medical cannabis patients, we lift the lid on the people within the UK movement. A subculture of politically driven people who feel they are forced to break the law getting access to the medication needed to treat their varying conditions.

Over the course of 3 years we explore their lives and why they campaign for change. As well as discussing the beneficial properties of cannabis, investigating the UK’s drug laws, and challenging cannabis stigma.

This might be the first time you've heard of them but the Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol party, or CISTA, beat BNP in the amount of total votes in the General Election by a significant margin. 

Here is how we done. The results from the 32 seats we contested. Thank you to the thousands of people who voted for us. We have only just begun...

Posted by CISTA on Friday, 8 May 2015

Sure the Conservatives won the General Election, but they were beaten by a pro-cannabis party in a few choice constituencies

Many Brits will have come across the Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol (CISTA) party for the first time when they looked at their ballot paper on Thursday. Others will still probably never have heard of this niche party.

But though they're small and - yes - focused on one single issue, they notched up a couple of triumphs in the 2015 General Election.

The Cannabis party beat the BNP

This party beat the British National Party in terms of votes, this year.

A few years back there were serious concerns that the BNP could win seats and thus change British politics forever.

Yet now the party is all but destroyed.

New research from a pair of neurologists at the University of Dublin claims cannabis could be the key to fighting disorders of the aging brain.

As the brain gets older, it becomes more susceptible to degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Although different areas of the brain are affected, what underlies both conditions is the progressive death of brain cells.

MEXICO CITY — Britain’s top two politicians try to avoid talking about drugs. It tends to embarrass them.

Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is sometimes reminded he got caught smoking pot when he was a student at Eton — the country’s most elite private school — and was "gated" (grounded) for about a week. He now supports marijuana prohibition. 

Labour leader Ed Miliband says he was too “square” to take drugs, but has read a lot about them, also leading to a prohibitionist stance. Yet when it comes to debating the issue, he shows he maybe hasn’t read enough.

During one recent televised debate, a young voter confronts and apparently schools Miliband over cannabis issues.

Arthritis sufferer Robert Genders began growing thousands of pounds worth of cannabis when he was told the pungent green drug would provide pain relief.

The 59-year-old bachelor was a talented amateur cyclist - until he had to have a shoulder replaced and found himself at a "loose end", Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday, May 6.

A room in his home was equipped for him to train in the heat.

But it was suggested to Genders by someone that the room could be used to produce cannabis.

Genders, a joiner, financed setting up the grow with cash from the sale of his bicycle.

He had only been nurturing his crop of 27 plants for three to four weeks when police seized them.

Derek Belshaw 'looked nervous' as officers stopped him in a car packed with the class B drug

A prolific drug dealer who was caught with almost £1million of cannabis and heroin in his car boot while out on day release has been jailed for ten years.

Derek Belshaw was stopped by officers who found shopping bags packed with 100 kilos of the Class B drug and a rucksack containing around half a kilo of heroin in the vehicle.

The 51-year-old had only been two years into an eight-year sentence for dealing when he was allowed out of prison after claiming he had secured a job in Atherton, Greater Manchester.