Interesting article by Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent for The Telegraph:

Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, said that at present illegal use of drugs was treated mainly as a law and order issue.

However, giving evidence to MPs yesterday Dame Sally referred to research which suggested the focus on criminalisation was “deterring drug users from seeking medical help”.

She said: “I think we have a health problem, and we would do well as a nation to look at is as a health problem. I think there’s quite a lot of evidence from other countries, and science, about how you could go about that.”

Alan Travis writes for The Guardian:

A six-year study of Britain's drug laws by leading scientists, police officers, academics and experts has concluded it is time to introduce decriminalisation.

The report by the UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC), an independent advisory body, says possession of small amounts of controlled drugs should no longer be a criminal offence and concludes the move will not lead to a significant increase in use.

So, I imagine the government will completely ignore this and continue to waste money:

The report says their analysis of the evidence shows that existing drugs policies struggle to make an impact and, in some cases, may make the problem worse.

The 173-page report concludes: "Taking drugs does not always cause problems, but this is rarely acknowledged by policymakers. In fact most users do not experience significant problems, and there is some evidence that drug use can have benefits in some circumstances."

This is a radically different view to the legal policy in the UK today. I can't help but feel this is a more sensible and scientific approach to drug law.

I feel the most interesting part of the article is the proposed change to how the classification system would work for drugs in the UK:

• Reviewing the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act so that technical decisions about the classification of individual drugs are no longer taken by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) or politicians but instead by an independent body with parliamentary oversight.

Moving scientists and engineers into positions of power is a smart move: politicians aren't equipped with the knowledge to make decisions about these matters. Scientists are.