Subj: UK: Cannabis congress explores how to legalise



Date: September 6, 1998



Source:    Independent on Sunday







Cannabis congress explores how to legalise



A UNIQUE symposium on the future of drugs

legislation across the world brought more than

150 prominent scientists, sociologists and lawyers

to London yesterday, writes Vanessa Thorpe. 



Delegates from Europe, Australia and the United

States met to discuss "Regulating Cannabis:

Options for Control in the 21st Century". 



The event was specifically designed to take the

debate into new territory and develop "blueprints

for post-decriminalisation regulation". 



It had been billed by its organisers as the first

conference to concentrate on the practical

problems of administering liberalised drug laws

rather than simply looking again at the arguments

for change. 



"This conference marks an historic turning point in

the cannabis debate," said Mike Goodman,

director of Release, the UK-based drug policy

organisation which co-hosted the symposium.

"We now expect the debate to shift away from

'should it be decriminalised?' to 'How cannabis

should be regulated responsibly'." 



Mr Goodman believes yesterday's discussions

were the first time that the alternative and fringe

groups involved in drugs law campaigning have

met with academics to work out a practical

future. 



Speakers included Dr Nicholas Dorn of the

Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and

Dr Geoffrey Guy, the British doctor whose

company, GW Pharmaceuticals, was granted a

groundbreaking licence to farm cannabis for

scientific research purposes earlier this year. 



They were joined by representatives of many of

the smaller British groups that have campaigned

for change in the drugs laws for the last 30 years.

Academics from universities in Germany, Holland,

Canada and Australia also attended and the

conference was addressed by Benedikt Fisher,

the co-ordinator of the Addiction Research

Foundation in Toronto. 



The symposium was run by Release in tandem

with the New York-based drugs policy research

institute, the Lindesmith Center, itself established

in 1994 by the philanthropist George Soros and

his Open Society Institute. 



The founder and director of the Lindesmith

Center, Ethan Nadelmann told delegates that he

saw the conference as an inevitable step forward

from the campaign stage. "As the public demands

legal access to cannabis for both therapeutic and

other responsible uses and as policy makers are

forced to take up the challenge of cannabis

regulation, we plan to advise them on how the

drug can best be regulated." 



The symposium was dubbed by delegates as the

first international cannabis congress and it had

been prompted by recent moves towards

decriminalisation both in Britain and the United

States. 



Speakers from the Lindesmith Center explained

how the situation for therapeutic cannabis users in

California has recently improved. 



The city council in Oakland has given designated

"cannabis buyers clubs" special immune status as

"officers of the city" in order to protect their

suppliers from federal prosecution.