The legalisation of cannabis. Cannabis, weed, skunk call it what you will, for many people, its a common sight at music festivals, house parties, and, frankly, your local town centre. Its the most commonly used illegal drug in britain, and last year in england and wales alone, over 2 Million People admitted taking it, even though being caught could land you in prison. But all over the world, attitudes to cannabis are changing. These countries have decriminalised the drug, meaning if youre caught with a small amount of weed, youre not going to jail. Some have gone further, and legalised it. And if you want to see things changing at pace, look at north america. In the us, 21 states have decriminalised small amounts of cannabis for personal consumption, and eight have gone further, legalising Recreational Use. But a place that many are watching is canada, with the country set to legalise the drug next year. So with all this happening around the world, some in the uk are asking, cannabis time for a change . Im in brighton to meet rob. Hi, how are you doing . He is the chair of the Brighton Cannabis Club, and thinks the answer to that question is yes. So basically, were visiting a venue where they offer a fully medicated meal, food, to Brighton Cannabis Club members. When you say fully medicated, that means there is loads of weed in the meal. Yes, its cannabis infused. So it will get you high if you consume it. So this meal is all about taking lots of cannabis, basically . Yeah. Lots of people today its a rainy, drizzly day at the seaside most people willjust go to the pub at lunchtime. Why notjust have a pint, like everyone else . Why does it have to be cannabis . For us, we consider cannabis to be a less harmful alternative to basically smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. And that isnt for everyone. So where exactly are we going, because we are just wandering the streets a little bit at the moment . I cant tell you the exact location. What it is is a restaurant in brighton that will allow you, 2a hours in advance, to book in a fully medicated menu, if you are a Brighton Cannabis Club member. Right. That makes it sound quite dodgy. Unfortunately, that is just due to the legality. That is why it is only available for Brighton Cannabis Club members. So in the kitchen here, a couple of chefs have been hard at work all morning, knocking up some food. Just taking a look over there, now, it looks pretty impressive, to be honest. And, ill be honest, it is not the kind of food you would expect in a sort of cafe that you might get in amsterdam or somewhere like that. It is not brownies and space cake or anything like that, it is pretty high end food. And ive actually been chatting to the chef who is behind it, and he has worked in some really top restaurants. Before you get the wrong end of the stick, this is not what they are going to be putting in all the food. This green stuff here is actually genuinely a dressing for it. The food is going to be infused with an oil that goes through it, and thats where the cannabis will be. Whats for starters today, then . So it will be corn fed chicken goujons, with black garlic aioli, and for the main course, we will be having grilled sea bream fillet and with purple afghan and pea arancini. I mean, where in there is the cannabis . Where are we finding cannabis in that meal . So you find it in the pea arancini. The purple afghan will be the strain, and itll be in the pea arancini. Its strange, isnt it . Because were sat here and it is quite a civilised event. Were all sat around, a glass of red wine and it is quite a relaxed atmosphere. But the government would say what you are doing is illegal, and it is illegal because of the harm it can do to you, and your friends, and also wider society. Why do you think you should be doing this . We believe that that information is outdated, their reports and basically the research is all very outdated. If you take a look at spain, portugal, canada, america they are all coming through with progressive, forward thinking policies that are basically finding more of a positive impact, and utilizing the cannabis culture for the positives it can do for the local community, for the industry, for medical patients, for Recreational Users thatjust want to have a social experience but not be criminalized for it. I mean, its pretty obvious, you represent Brighton Cannabis Club, it is blazed all over your t shirt. How popular is the club . So far we have over 400 club members. We have been around for three orfour years. We have over 40,000 instagram followers, 6,000 facebook likes, and basically we keep growing. Weve had one of our outdoor events, green pride, which has grown year on year. Our first year we only had 100 people turn up to it. The second year, 1,000. 0urthird year1,500 and about eight different stalls. This year, we hit over 3000 people attending and about 25 different stalls, setting up for the day. And we have basically limited police interruption. That might be robs experience in brighton, but i want to get a sense of the National Picture from greg, chair of the uk cannabis social clubs. Generally weve got a movement thats built up now. Six years ago, when we started, in 2011, we didnt have any clubs in the country, people were just growing their own, and consuming their own and if they got busted, they got busted. But what weve done now is we have put out a model and there are over 100 clubs six years later, working towards that model, to try and say this is how we can integrate into the rest of society. We are a self regulated model that has been show over the years to be successful. Is the idea of this sort of thing, with all this fancy food knocking round, and this kind of environment, trying to take people away from the idea of what cannabis clubs might be . Because i think a lot of people would think its a smoky club, in amsterdam, or Something Like that. We are definitely trying to normalize cannabis use and to be open about it is really important. It does normalise it. It does gradually change minds and society. We are not asking people to suddenly go, alright, we accept it now. We are saying, like, listen to what we have to say, were not the demon people they might have once thought we were. The thing about spending time with rob, greg and the guys down at the meal, was what they were doing in that environment feels quite normal in that setting, but what you have to remember is, what they were doing was actually illegal. And frankly, they could have all been arrested for doing just that. And that is the question, when youre asking, should weed, cannabis call it what you want be illegal . The chances of the guys down there getting arrested today were probably quite slim but, had they done that in a country with much stricter drug laws, they probably would be. Somewhere like sweden, which has got some of the toughest drug laws in europe, arguably the world. Annika strandhall is the minister with responsibility for health and drug policy. In sweden, we have a very broad Political Support in both the government and parliament for our drug free society. At the heart of swedish drug policy, this idea that cannabis is a gateway drug. Can you explain why you hold that policy so close . We see, especially among young people, and also a lot of studies show that extensive use of cannabis, or regular use of cannabis at an early age, also affects especially young peoples brains. While many swedes ive spoken to agree with the governments strict drug policy, there are plenty that dont. Alexander bard is a bit of a celebrity here. The former musician and now a judge on swedens got talent is also passionate about changing the law on drugs. Essentially, why sweden was the saudi arabia of drugs which it has been until recently in europe was because in sweden, we had this idea that wed have a government, it could be socialist or conservative, it didnt matter, but the government would actually sponsor an aggressive anti drug policy. And suddenly sweden is at least the country in europe where drug policy and culture surrounding drugs is changing the fastest at the moment. Weve come here because people say oh, it is the strictest country in europe, but your argument is, it might be strict from the politicians, and the people putting the laws in place, but lots of young people are moving away from that, and their attitudes are changing. Totally, totally. I mean, policy in sweden and the aggressive anti drug stance is kind of an anomaly in swedish culture. Sweden is incredibly liberal about sex, for example. So this aggressive conservative stand concerning drugs is kind of an anomaly in swedish policy. Swedish drug policy has always been about this idea of the gateway drug. Cannabis was seen as this gateway drug. All your drug policy is based around this philosophy, and lots of people still believe that to be the case. We have spoken to the head of police, who is tackling narcotics, and we have spoken to mps. All these people say that is still the case. Why do you think that is different . It turned out it was a lie. Thats frankly not true. Its not empirically true. That is not the way it works. Ironically, some people start with lsd and then they smoke cannabis. If i come back in five years time, will it be completely different . Will it be a legalised, liberal system . We have to start differentiating between drugs that are Recreational Use and are not addictive. They are one category. Then we have the other category which is incredibly addictive drugs that are destructive for you and make you dysfuctional as a human being. I dont see that we are going to legalise those drugs in a long time. Rather we are going to have a much more advanced and civilised debate on how we deal with addiction per se. And i think sweden could definitely go at the forefront at that moment. Later that evening, i find two friends in a bar, who have very different views on cannabis. So ijumped in for a chat. It is like with alcohol. I think it should be as prohibited as with alcohol. I dont see the difference between it. Your off licence is government regulated. Yes. And thats how you would like to treat weed . Yes, i think so. You can have a beer or a glass of wine or anything, pairing with food and wine or beer. But when it comes to drugs, it isjust drugs. And you think they should just be banned, and that is the easiest way to deal with it . Yes, absolutely. But is that really like the solution to that . It is a generation question, actually. I think the younger ones, they smoke more, like. Have you ever smoked a joint . Yes, i have. But you wouldnt do it in front of her because youd jeopardise your friendship . No, i know that she loves me anyway. The swedish approach on paper isnt a million miles from the laws we have in the uk. But my next stop is somewhere with a completely different approach. 16 years ago, portugal took the bold step of decriminalising all drugs. And while that does not mean they have been legalised, it does mean if you are stopped with a small amount of anything from cannabis to heroin, you will be treated as if you have a medical problem, rather than a criminal one. Drjoao goulao is the man who designed the system. We started from a catastrophic position. We had one of the highest rates of problematic reviews in europe by the late 90s. It was almost impossible to find a portuguese family that had no problems in relations with drugs. We decided to try a new approach. We are happy, 15, 16 years later, we can look back and say that we have a lot of improvement in the consequences of drug use in portugal. Chatting to people in lisbon, it is clear that most people seem to think that the government has got itjust about right when it comes to the more liberal, kind of medical approach to drugs. But as with these things, not everybody agrees. We are heading just outside of the city, now, to meet a guy who runs his own drug clinic. The interesting thing about him is that, from what weve heard, he thinks it has gone that little bit too far. Hi, carlos, nice to meet you, how are you doing . How are you . Good. Carlos fugas has been working to help users for over 30 years, and now runs this residential rehab centre for recovering addicts. What is it about the portuguese system that you think has just overstepped the mark . We need more restrictive measures, because it is too easy for our youngsters to get drugs. As we have walked around, we have seen clearly people dealing in the streets, in certain areas, and that is because, in your mind, theyre allowed to carry quite a lot of drugs on them, so its quite an easy cover, you can just walk around and say, oh, this is for me. That is the main problem we have. But i must clarify that i am in favour of decriminalisation and not against the system. I think the real problem is the business that is behind all this movement. Clients, they just want to have a good time when they start consuming drugs. But afterwards, that good time becomes a nightmare. 23 year old andrea showed me around the centre. He has been living here for 6 months, and im keen to find out more about his drug problems. At first, i had problems with hashish, cannabis they were the first. Then i started to go to parties, trans parties, and i start to take amphetamines, and later, when i was 16 or 17, i started to take cocaine. And that was very bad for me. I destroyed my life with that. Quite a common path that people mention, isnt it . It is controversial, people dont agree, but this idea of a gateway. So you start smoking cannabis, then go on to other drugs. Do you see a link between your cannabis use and your later use in other drugs . Yes, because we get used to the drugs and then they seem to stop working and we need something harder. How have drugs, specifically cannabis and these psychedelic drugs that you take, affected your Mental Health . Have you suffered with Mental Health issues because of drugs . Cannabis has thc and psychotropics that really busts your head. I started having psychotic episodes and i ended in the hospital because i hear voices in my head and that was very bad. When i walk in the street, i have always have the feeling that someone is stalking me and i need to hide and run. But then i started to take the right pills, the right medication, to heal myself and it is working and i am grateful to that. The final stop for me in portugal is the dissuasion court. I think it must be this one. This is definitely the address we have been given. Well, they have let us in, so thats a good sign. Its certainly not what you would expect of a court back in britain. Maybe weve got the wrong end of the stick, maybe this is not a traditional court. I must admit, it is getting weirder. Its definitely not the entrance to a court you would be accustomed to back home. Users who are caught with small amounts of drugs are referred here and dealt with as medical patients and not criminals. Door bell rings. Hi,jim. Nice to meet you. This is the waiting room. These are the rooms where we have the preliminary interview before the hearing stage. This is the room where we are having a hearing now. Well be able to join them. Ricardo has been given an appointment, after being caught with cannabis at a music festival. He has agreed to let us film his hearing, if we do not show his face. I heard the word hashish mentioned there. He was caught with some cannabis . Yes, he was caught with a small amount of hashish, cannabis derivative. Because hes a non addict, a Recreational User, first time offence, we suspend the procedure for three months. If he is not caught a second time in that period of treatment, we will close the procedure. After the hearing, i am keen to have a chat with ricardo, to see what he thinks of the dissuasion court. We wont film your face. Do you think this process, so chatting to a psychologist, a doctor, coming in here, has it made you think about your drug use . Exactly. Im not addicted so i will stop. From now on it will make me stop. I dont need it. The system in portugal, i think, this is the best because it is not for one mistake that a person has to get a life sentence. Back in the uk, and is it time for a change here . At the last election, only one major party said it wanted to do things differently. The lib dems want to legalise cannabis. Hi, there. Nice to meet you. I went to see their new leader, vince cable. The evidence is clear that if you want to stop abuse and damage to young people, you have got to bring the trade into the open and out of the hands of the criminal underworld. The government says it bases its policy on research and evidence and it says it is protecting people from the harms that drug causes. Well, i certainly dont want to promote drug use, and there are some forms of drugs that are legal, like cigarettes and alcohol. And they do cause harm but theyre still legal and we try to minimise their use, and you use taxation and regulations to try and limit it. Others are illegal, cannabis being a good example. But there are serious negative side effects from driving it underground. And common sense suggests to me that you should try to regulate and control this market rather than just have a free market anarchy in the underground, which is what happens at the moment. When cannabis plants are being bred and grown, they have a substance called cannabigerol that goes on to form three other substances when the plant grows. Two are really important when it comes to how the user is affected by the drug. Thc thats what gets people high but at increased levels, it is also the thing blamed for Mental Health issues. The other substance is cbd and it acts as an anti psychotic, and counteracts some of the negative effects of thc. Depending on the genetics of the plant, you can either have a high thc, low cbd strain, or cbd can be the main compound, or you can have something a bit more balanced. There are three main types of cannabis products and the amount of thc in each of them varies massively hash where cbd is generally higher and thc tends to be low; herbal cannabis where thc levels are low and cbd is usually low or not there at all; and then there is high potency cannabis, often called skunk, which has high levels of thc and almost no cbd. It is also the most common type of cannabis being sold, making up around 80 90 of the market in the uk and, some argue, it is this lack of cbd and high thc in skunk that leads to Mental Health problems, especially in those with underlying problems. We wanted to put what we found in sweden and portugal to the government here, but it wouldnt speak to us. In an email, it says it has no plans to legalize cannabis, saying there is Clear Scientific and medical evidence that is a harmful drug which can damage peoples mental and physical health. Well, the government wouldnt speak to us in person there, but we are going to meet somebody who will. Very passionate about this subject. Hes a hereditary peer called lord monson, and he has a very personal reason for being interested in this subject. That looks like a suitably grand house for a lord. So right, welljust move in here. Jim, really nice to meet you. He has invited me along to talk about his 21 year old son, who had a problem with cannabis. We noticed that there was something that was becoming strange with rupert, about a year ago. Anyway, he was diagnosed with drug induced psychosis. And he was duly sectioned. One day injanuary he said to his mother that the voices were getting so strong in his head and he was really scared. Anyway, two days later he went out in the evening and then. He killed himself. Afterwards, i spoke to the doctors. Somebodyjust said, in an off hand way, this is yet another kind of casualty of skunk. And i said well, isnt that just sort of. Cannabis mustve changed. He said, well, this is not really the cannabis that you might have known, with the greatest respect, sir, a0 years ago when you might have been experimenting with the odd toke. He said this is completely different stuff. So i looked it up on the internet and i was actually shocked to discover how strong this variant of cannabis is, and as such, it is my belief that the way to tackle skunk is to legalise the Old Fashioned cannabis so it has the right balance of thc with cbd and it has only a certain level of potency. Lots of people listening to this will find it strange that a drug that you say killed your son, youre now campa|gn|ng to legalise it. I think that skunk is. Its been labelled as cannabis but it is not really. It is a frankenstein variant. Some people will argue that, frankly, your son may have had underlying mental issues and thats what led to him killing himself and it wasnt the drug. Well, indeed, yes, that has been put to me. I received a whole lot of letters, people who read about ruperts death. Can i read you out one of them . Yeah, sure. It says, i was so sad to read about the loss of your son, rupert. There are so many paralles for the death of my son. He also had a history of Mental Illness and in the most part caused by smoking cannabis and skunk. Lord monson has received a number of letters all containing stories very similar to ruperts. Whilst were going through them, his friend, louisa, arrives. Hello, louisa how lovely to see you. She is a drug worker in london and they have been working together on an approach to high potency cannabis. You work with people who use all different types of drugs heroin addicts, crack addicts. How does that compare with someone thats got skunk problems . This will not be a popular answer, but i would say give me a room full of heroin addicts than skunk addicts. If i take my therapists hat off and i think of my own sons, i remember saying to my older son, i would prefer you to take heroin than to smoke skunk, and he looked at me and went, mum, you cant say that he doesnt work with the impact. Heroin and crack, it does what it says on the tin. Its physical, its emotional, its spiritual. Whereas skunk is the psychotic aspect. Somebody has to wake up and say the unsayable, which is that there is going to be generations of kids with severe Mental Health issues or, with nicholass case, kids dying and it wont be from your normal 0d from a heroin overdose, it will be from suicide because they cant deal with the voices and it is the voices which i work with. I just want to get one final thought from you, you say you have had this correspondence with the prime minister, youve had letters going backwards and forwards. Recently, in the latest government drug strategy, the idea of decriminalization was mentioned but very briefly and, in short, it was dismissed as not having enough evidence. I think that the liberal democrats have embraced my argument and i know that there are many people in the conservative party, whom beforehand you would never have expected to embrace counter intuitive initiatives such as the one im suggesting, and i think there could be in the next five years, i hope, a change of heart from the government. At least a green paper, i should imagine. Since meeting lord monson, i spoke to the prime minister. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to film the conversation, but she told us she stands by her governments new drug strategy, which she says is all about helping people recover. Walking around here and it is not hard to find signs of people using cannabis. Everywhere you go in this area of east london and, to be honest, in most other places in the uk, you can see it and even on a weekday morning, you can smell it in the air. With the same experience in portugal, which on the face of it has much more relaxed drug policies, but i keep thinking back to ricardo, who we saw at the dissuasion court. He was caught with a fewjoints going into a music festival, and had to go through a half hour appointment with a psychiatrist, he had to go that kind of court case experience and, i keep thinking, what would have happened to him if that had happened in the uk, had he been caught with the same amount of drugs at a festival here . Realistically, i suspect not a lot. So it does beg the question, when it comes to say, weed, do we already have one of the more tolerant approaches in europe . Hello again. Today marks the first day of the meteorological autumn, so i thought we would start with a summary of summer. A decent start. Temperatures soared up to 35 celsius back in june, but since then it has been rather disappointing. A cool second half, especially in august. The first few weeks terrible and quite wet at times too. This morning we get off to a chilly start of the day. Out in the countryside, temperatures down to about 3 4 degrees in the coldest spots first thing, so a chill in the air. Apart from that there will be plenty of morning sunshine. Most areas having a dry morning as well. But into the early afternoon the cloud will bubble up, especially in eastern parts of the uk. A scattering of showers begins to develop. A largely dry picture in scotland. A few showers towards the borders and certainly into eastern counties of england. Those showers get going. Some of them will be heavy. Thunder mixed in, but pretty well scattered. In the sunshine, wherever you are during the day on friday, there will be pleasant sunshine and it should feel reasonable, with temperatures generally into the high teens to the low 20s and a lightish north westerly breeze in parts of the country. During the evening, those showers begin to fade away slowly. The second half of the night should become dry, and with clearing skies it will be another chilly night. So to start off the weekend again temperatures down to about 11 12 degrees. Colder than that in the countryside. About 3 4 in the coldest spots. What about the weekend weather prospects . Definitely a weekend of two halves. Saturday with the best of it. Sunny spells for the most part. But on sunday, after a bright start, particularly in the east, we start to see a band of rain moving across the uk. Here is the pressure chart for the weekend. High pressure initially. Theres this zone of wet weather moving into the second half of the weekend, with strengthening winds. In more detail, saturday is a decent day, with sunshine. Dry for the vast majority. Temperatures doing pretty well. High teens to low 20s, with light winds. It will feel pleasant in that september sunshine. Most temperatures towards south east england. We will see this rain encroach overnight into northern ireland. After a bright start to the day across eastern scotland, much of england will see cloud thicken up. Outbreaks of rain moving in and it will turn breezy. Temperatures 18 19 degrees typically. Thats your latest weather. Welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. My name is mike embley. Our top stories in the united states, more than 300,000 people register for Disaster Relief in the wake of storm harvey. The white house is to ask congress for emergency funding. And in bangladesh, weeks after the worst flooding in decades, a third of the country is still underwater. Millions are affected across south asia. 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