Peter Reynolds - the leader of Cannabis Law Reform in the UK

The protests, public smoking, stereotypical ‘drop-out’ behaviour, cause DAMAGE to the cannabis campaign.

I don’t give a damn how people dress, or what they smoke or do, as long as they’re peaceful. In the ’70s, I lived in Vondel Park, Amsterdam, for two years and later I hitch-hiked around Europe and North Africa with a guitar on my back. I’m still a hippy at heart.

When you want to persuade people, when you need to win hearts and minds, when you want to achieve reform, it doesn’t matter what you think, what your ‘rights’ are, or what is ‘just’ or ‘fair’.

... and it could end up on the streets of Britain

• The strain is grown in Swaziland, one of South Africa's poorest states
• It has extremely high concentrations of THC
• South African teens blend it with heroin to produce potent cocktail 

It's the most widely used illegal drug in the world, but does cannabis deserve its reputation as being one of the safest?

Not if you take a look at South Africa, one of the UK's biggest providers of high-strength cannabis, where a potent strain of the plant dubbed 'swazi gold' is wrecking havoc on its young population.

GW Pharmaceuticals plc, a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform, announced  that it has initiated the second Phase 3 clinical trial of Epidiolex (cannabidiol or CBD) for the treatment of Dravet syndrome, a rare and catastrophic treatment-resistant form of childhood epilepsy. This follows GW’s recent announcement of the commencement of the first Phase 3 clinical trial of Epidiolex in Dravet syndrome. GW expects to complete patient recruitment into this second trial in 2015 and to report top-line results in early 2016.

THE Liberal Democrats unveiled radical plans to decriminalise possession of drugs as they launched their Scottish manifesto.

The party said that, as a first step towards this, it will push for new laws to stop people being jailed over possession for personal use.

Many of the 80,000 Scots left with a criminal record for possession often have mental health issues and this can harm their employment prospects, the Lib Dems said.Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie also accused Prime Minister David Cameron of “playing up division” over his attacks on the SNP in recent weeks and the Tories’ “unreasonable” plans to deliver English votes for English laws.

In brief

Vulnerable people are missing out on medical treatment due to governmental refusal to treat cannabis the same way as alcohol, a newcomer to election campaigning has claimed.

The Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol party (Cista) is calling for a Royal Commission to review current UK drug laws.

Its goal is to achieve the decriminalisation of cannabis and the establishment of a regulated industry for its supply.

The party, which was founded earlier this year by Paul Birch, the co-founder of social networking site Bebo, launched its Northern Ireland manifesto in Belfast tonight.

It is fielding 32 candidates in the UK.

Surprisingly, none of these reasons are that it makes bass-heavy hip hop tracks sound great, or that it really brings out the best in pizza.

With recreational marijuana now legalised in two American states, political momentum is building up towards full legalisation across the pond.

Even here in the UK, experts are now speaking out in favour of the idea – in the hope that a political ‘domino effect’ leads to worldwide relaxation of anti-drug laws following the US’s lead.

Just in time for 4/20 – the pro-dope day being celebrated here as well as in the U.S. – here are some of the most persuasive reasons experts offer for why we should free the weed.

1) Weed is 114 times safer than alcohol

Back in January, Benzinga published a list of 15 marijuana stocks to watch in 2015. The S&P 500 is up more than 2.1 percent so far this year, but how are marijuana investors enjoying 2015?

As the debate over marijuana legalization rages on in the United States, April 20 (4/20) seemed an appropriate time to provide an update on the year-to-date (YTD) performances of these 15 marijuana names.

See Also: 15 Marijuana Stocks To Watch In 2015

Here’s a breakdown of the full list:

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I realised I had a crap birthday. It's one of those inconvenient dates, like Christmas or May-Day, where all my friends are off work celebrating something bigger than myself, and my getting-older always seems to go vastly unnoticed. As a result, 4/20 has developed from something I loved to something that irritates me year-on-year, not because I think I'm entitled to be celebrated more than weed, or because I end up getting high every year without fail, but because if you – like me – think we need serious changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act, blazing a spliff in Hyde Park is a surefire way to guarantee that doesn't ever happen.