I think my statement speaks for itself. I'm not going to get into a point-by-point debate with you, but look at what's happening in the US to see where we should be going. As far as I can tell the sky hasn't fallen in over Colorado as yet, so we may for once have something to learn from US drug law reform.

"You can feel the stadium jumping. The stadium is actually physically moving up and down"
FA Cup MOTD 24/4/16

"Skunk cannabis" I'm sorry but this is how out of touch the media/poloticians/researchers are to the truth, Skunk was a breed of cannabis many years ago which overtime has been crossed with other variants of the cannabis family (indica, sative, ruderalis) to which makes up a small preportion of what is available to buy.
Here is a background on skunk#1 [Link]

Those who reported smoking milder forms of the drug, such as hash,
that's because most of the hash in this country is laced with rubber, cling film, tar, etc etc if it were to be produced untouched it would have the same charecteristics as the plant it has been extracted from

did not appear to be at increased risk,
In fact the hash they refer too is probably more dangerous long term

for instance. Murray said that, in line with this finding, he recommends hash to patients who are struggling to give up smoking altogether.
This in itself is a ridiculous statemen

Murray added that, since 2011 when the study ended, cannabis has generally been increasing in potency,
Correct
with synthetic varieties such as “Spice” having been linked to acute episodes of psychosis
synthetic varieties - who knows what other compounds have been added to this to get round the loophole of criminalising it's natural form, it's the increased risk of kids turning to this stuff which is a far greater risk to mental health

This article was modified on 16 February 2015
6 years of study left untouched for 4 years yet modified in a day in the run up to a general election, ta dah reafer madness is making a comeback. lets look at the US and start taking decriminilization seriously as the only harm it does in the long run is - line the pockets of criminals when it could be regulated, taxed and the money generated to fix our crumbling economy.
take important police time away from dealing with someone with a bit of cannabis on them for personal use when they could be stopping a more serious crime and also freeing up prison spaces for more hardened criminals,
The money be used to educate better the effects of cannabis use so it then is seen as a health issue like alcahol/tobbaco.

to make clear that the study found skunk use was responsible for a quarter of new cases of psychosis in the population in south London that the researchers looked at
410 patients, so that's around 130 so three quarters were of natural progression so what is this really showing you? as been said that the national statistics of mental health problems has never risen although cannabis consumption has.

– not across the country as a whole.
Would be a better indicator if you're going to spurt mistruths about cannabis

Edited by dannyb1 (17 Feb 2015 3.47pm)

You can't control the market or the supply....You can only introduce an official market and supply.

You can't eradicate the criminal element....That's unrealistic.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Market Control - The production of drugs, recreational of all kind in the UK is controlled through license to produce for market. Under any system of production the capacity to produce is driven by the ability to produce in bulk, at low cost.

Under the licence and laws of the production of alcohol the supply of bootleg illegally produced alcohol in the UK is largely non-existent - Simply because production on a sufficient scale to compete with legal production is not financially viable.

Supply - Slightly harder to control, however, the capacity for the control of price, makes the possibility of competition non-existent. The price of even common recreational drugs is driven by the illegal market. Cannabis is a remarkably cheap drug to produce, and yet the retail price on a 1/8th is around twenty quid, simply because of the mark up, of around 500% that occurs in the supply model.

The simple fact is that the illegal market simply couldn't compete with a legal one (exactly the same way it couldn't with prohibition). Organised crime gangs would simply be priced out of the production and supply, because they can't compete in production, distribution or supply.

This applies to all recreational drugs, which when produced legally (for research and medical use) retail to the end supplier at 1/35th of the price of the black market, unadulterated). Simply put organised crime can't operate at that competition level, other than to sell very low quality product. That leaves plenty of room for revenue generation through taxation and profit.

Criminal element - Essentially why would you buy from a criminal source, when you can obtain from a legal source for less and at better quality? You wouldn't. That wouldn't end crime, it would however mean that certain very lucrative avenues of crime were unavailable. Ending prohibition didn't end the American Mafia, but it did massively reduce the violence and how that crime impacted general society.

Similarly, the same could be said of the UK. The drug market is worth a fortune to organised crime and it generates a huge amount of crime to firstly control it, and then secondly through the cost of drugs (ie of addicts to obtain drugs through shoplifting, burglary, prostution).

A legal market could sell the same gram of heroin that costs 80 quid on the street, at profit, for the price of a packet of cigerettes, unadulterated. Meaning that an addict with a two gram a day habit, is having to find 12 quid, rather than 160 quid a day to maintain their habit.

In order to obtain that 160 quid through crime, generally you'll need to commit at least 480 worth of crime. Where as finding 12 quid could be as simple as working a part time job, or at worst committing 36 pounds worth of crime.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

Hippies are a blight upon the Earth, although legalising it is the right thing to do.

I love the argument that it's mad hippies that smoke cannabis, you would be surprised and shocked at the level in society of a cannabis user. (doctors, police, lawyers)