Cannabis congress considers control

A UNIQUE symposium on the future of drug laws 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 designed to take the issue 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 arguments for change.

"This conference marks an historic turning point," said Mike Goodman, director of Release, the UK-based drug policy organisation which co-hosted the symposium. "We now expect the debate to shift to `How cannabis should be regulated responsibly'."

Speakers included Dr Nicholas Dorn of the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence, and Dr Geoffrey Guy, a Briton whose company, GW Pharmaceuticals, was granted a groundbreaking licence to farm cannabis for scientific research purposes earlier this year. Academics from Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia also attended.

The symposium was run by Release with the New York-based drugs policy research institute, the Lindesmith Center, established in 1994 by the philanthropist George Soros.

Speakers from the Lindesmith Center explained how the situation for therapeutic cannabis users in California had 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.

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 US.