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Legalise cannabis, say doctors

Jeremy Laurance
Tuesday 22 June 1999 00:02 BST
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A GROUP of doctors who specialise in public health are calling for cannabis to be legalised for medicinal and recreational use.

The group has tabled a motion for debate at the British Medical Association's annual conference next month calling for a change in the law to help curb the spread of hard drugs.

The doctors are members of the Scottish committee for public health medicine and community health, and they argue that classifying cannabis alongside heroin and cocaine gives young people the idea that taking hard drugs is no more dangerous than smoking a joint.

Their motion, that the BMA should "support the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal and recreational use", was put before the BMA's public health conference by the committee earlier this month but was defeated.

George Venters, the committee chairman, said: "I think more than half the population would support legalisation if you laid out the evidence.

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