Dopey, happy and healthy

Seventy per cent of doctors support the use of cannabis in medicine. Francesca Beard investigates

Public fears about crack, E and smack have reached such a pitch that marijuana seems relatively cuddly - particularly given the increasing acceptance of its beneficial medical properties among doctors and scientists. Perhaps that's why Howard Marks, Oxford graduate, high-class drug smuggler and former inmate of Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana, has chosen the unlikely setting of Norwich to launch his campaign.

He will be standing in the general election on a legalise cannabis ticket. And, in an effort to reach a wider audience, he has got together with a London-based group of musicians to record a dance track entitled "TechnoPolitical Party Broadcast". Sample vocals from Howard "Mr Nice" Marks include "Why do we criminalise our youth and expect them to respect our laws?"; "Prohibition is a failed social experiment"; and "This government has declared war on its own population."

Cannabis' calmative properties were well known in the 19th century (according to medical records, Queen Victoria used it to ease menstrual cramps). In fact, cannabis was only removed from the NHS lists in 1966, becoming the nation's evil corrupter of youth and demon drug in 1971, when it was officially declared of no medical use. Doctors, scientists and sufferers believe that some effects of conditions such as glaucoma, cancer chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, Aids, migraines, epilepsy, depression and pruritus can be alleviated with the use of cannabis.

Those who have tried the drug purely recreationally will have already experienced its muscle-relaxant and appetite-arousing effects (these can, of course, counteract one another, as anyone who has suffered a raging attack of the munchies and simultaneously lacked the energy to dial for pizza will testify). But cannabis also has a powerful anti-nausea action. However, any benefits it may offer will not be effective when it is taken in conjunction with alcohol. (Of course, the same applies to flu remedies, codeine and antibiotics.)

But what, you ask, about the paranoia? My hair is falling out/people are avoiding me/I'm going to die? A disadvantage, it is true, but one shared by drugs currently prescribed for cancer, Aids and multiple sclerosis, which can have hallucinatory properties.

A Channel 4 survey in March 1995 found that 70 per cent of doctors thought that cannabis should be available on prescription. Unfortunately, there is an inherent problem with publicly supporting its use, since this is tantamount to admitting you are a criminal.

Since its exile from social acceptability, hemp has had a passionate underground following. But the conspiracy theorists, stoned slackers and shipwrecked hippies have a surprising amount of support among informed, so-called responsible members of society. For many people, the criminalisation of hemp is a crime against logic. And among those informed, responsible members of society you can include the 43 members of Parliament who, in a recent ITN poll, declared that they had had experience of "soft" drugs.