In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, a group of leading scientists argue that global drug prohibition has not only compounded the harms of drug use, but also produced the worst censorship of research in centuries. They likened the banning of psychoactive drugs and the subsequent hampering of research on them to the Catholic Church banning the works of Copernicus and Galileo.

The paper, Effects of Schedule I Drug Laws on Neuroscience Research and Treatment Innovation (abstract only), was written by Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London and Leslie King, both former government advisors, and Professor David Nichols of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

A SCIENCE teacher rapped for growing cannabis has claimed smoking weed helped him create better lessons for his pupils.

Alan Taylor, who taught at Westleigh High, claimed Britain’s drugs policy is “immoral” and “corrupt”.

Taylor, from Atherton, was excluded from teaching for at least five years by a disciplinary panel after admitting he grew and consumed the drug at home.

A WIGAN teacher has been banned from the country’s classrooms for at least five years after being caught growing cannabis at his home.

The ban was imposed on Alan Taylor, 43, by Education Secretary Michael Gove, following a disciplinary panel finding that Taylor was guilty of breaching the standard of conduct expected of teachers.

It is the second time that Taylor – who taught science at Westleigh High - has found himself before a disciplinary panel over his cannabis use.

GW Pharmaceuticals, the biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercialising novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform, announced that Sativex®, its treatment for spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis, has today been rescheduled in the UK from Schedule 1 under the Misuse of Drugs Act to Schedule 4, part 1. The move follows a recommendation to the Home Office by the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which determined that Sativex® has a low potential for abuse and low risk of diversion.

Criminologist Professor Alex Stevens has refuted media reports that reducing penalties for cannabis possession has led to increased drug use, crime and health problems. He said published data shows that these claims are unfounded and in fact highlight that cannabis use and crime have gone down since the 2004 declassification of cannabis to a class C substance.

He said: ‘Government policy on cannabis hit the headlines again recently, when both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph ran articles on it claiming reductions in penalties for users of the drug have increased both crime and drug-related hospital admissions. If cannabis declassification did cause these effects, it would be an interesting and novel finding. Most researchers who have studied this issue have found little evidence of changes in use or related harms as a result of changes to penalties for users.