Today Professor David Nutt, who heads up the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs comments on Cannabis and other substances were widely reported.

This is a very welcome contribution to the debate about drug used as you may recall earlier this month I raised the issue of use of Alcohol and Tobacco in an article on Labour List.

Professor Nutt has a very valid point in his argument about artificial separation of Alcohol and Tobacco from recreational other drugs.

Society has a duty of care to protect vulnerable users be it of Alcohol or any recreational drugs in the interests of the wider community not just the individual.

From 1920 till 1933 the United States tried a policy of prohibition of Alcohol which only succeeded in creating wealth for gangsters the UK policy towards some drugs for example Cannabis has had a similar effect.

Consumers of Cannabis currently do not benefit from any of the consumer protection users of other drugs such as Alcohol currently benefit from if someone is sold a short measure of beer they can complain to Trading Standards, yet if they buy a short amount of cannabis they have no recourse at all.

The legalising and licensing of Cannabis would not only reduce the massive resources that are wasted by law enforcement agencies in chasing users and dealers but also provide much needed income for Government.

Professor Nutt along with some other academics developed a Matrix of Harm based on damage that different drugs did to individuals and society.

The 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act needs fundemental reform to bring it up to date with current society and the way it uses all drugs including Alcohol and Tobacco.

Caption: Figure 1 from Nutt et al: Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse. As published in the Lancet on Friday, March 23, 2007.
Credit: David Nutt et al.