Regular Users of the Drug Found to Have Lower Levels of Insulin After Fasting, Research Shows

Smoking cannabis may prevent the development of diabetes, one of the most rapidly rising chronic disorders in the world.

If the link is proved, it could lead to the development of treatments based on the active ingredient of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), without its intoxicating effects.

Researchers have found that regular users of the drug had lower levels of the hormone insulin after fasting - a signal that they are protected against diabetes. They also had reduced insulin resistance. Cannabis is widely smoked in the United States with over 17 million current users of whom more than four million smoke it on a daily basis. In the UK latest figures show 2.3 million people used cannabis in the last year, but the numbers have declined in the last decade.

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Lady Neidpath, Who Once Drilled a Hole in Her Own Head, Is Dead Serious About Drugs. Nick Curtis Hears Why Our Fear of Illegal Highs Means We Could Be Missing Out on Cures for Depression

I DO NOT doubt for one moment the absolute sincerity of the drugs campaigner Amanda Feilding, aka Lady Neidpath, Countess of Wemyss and March. Nor the good sense in her argument that narcotics should be scientifically studied, decriminalised, and licensed and regulated by the state for medical or recreational use as appropriate - a "sensible" alternative to the vast waste of lives and money in the unwinnable War on Drugs. But I can see how easy it is for her opponents to demonise the 70-year-old as a batty aristo.

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Top Crime Writer Calls for Supervised Zones to Cut Heroin and Crack Deaths

Brighton is set to be the first British city to offer official "drug consumption rooms" where addicts can use heroin, crack and cocaine under supervision without fear of prosecution. The city's public health leaders will meet this summer to "give serious consideration" to the plan in order to save lives.

Brighton has one of the UK's highest drug-related death rates, with 104 fatalities between 2009 and 2011. An estimated 2,000 people in the city have a serious abuse problem. A report published this week from an independent drugs commission led by the crime author Peter James and Mike Trace, a former UK deputy drugs tsar, is expected to say that drug consumption rooms "significantly reduce overdose death rates" and do not encourage further use.

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The global war on drugs should be abandoned and they could be legalised, an establishment think tank has declared.

A study by the International Institute of Strategic Studies found that the global war on narcotics had failed to contain the scourge of illegal stimulants.

The drugs trade has spread to Africa and Eastern Europe in recent decades and entrenched its standing in its traditional strongholds of Asia and the Americas.

Nigel Inkster, the former assistant chief of MI6 and author of the study, said there was a growing revolt against the cost of the fight in developing countries.

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Raids Target Rising Domestic Cultivation of Drug, Fuelled by Debt and Criminality

If making big money from cannabis cultivation was the aim, there is no evidence of success in this small, rented, two-storey terrace home, raided by Manchester police.

Downstairs, the middle-aged male tenant had just sat down in a bare sitting room, in front of afternoon television, to enjoy a piece of buttered white toast and a porn magazine when the police arrived. Of the three rooms upstairs, only the bedroom is furnished, but sparsely a bed, a dirty duvet, no sheets on the mattress, and a ratty pair of slippers half-tucked under the bed. "He's not living in affluence," a police officer remarks, glancing in.

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A JOURNALIST whose house was raided by police because it had a "hot roof " has lodged a formal complaint after being wrongly targeted.

Kris Sangani's Leytonstone home was searched by officers acting on information that the roof was emitting unusually high levels of heat - - a sign of a cannabis farm.

Officers, who carried out the raid as part of a Met crackdown on drug dealers, found nothing and told him they would not be making any further enquiries, but did not apologise.

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Marijuana-scented cards are being distributed across the UK in the hope they will help people to sniff out crime, literally.

The scratch- and-sniff cards are intended to help people identify illegal cannabis farms. Over the last two years, police have seized more than 1m marijuana plants, with an estimated value of more than UKP 200m, and there was a 15% increase in cannabis farms in 2011-12.

With the help of the police, Crimestoppers will be distributing the cards, which replicate the smell of the drug in its growing state. Anyone hoping for a cheap high will be disappointed, however: the charity points out that the cards do not contain marijuana's active ingredient, THC.

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THE Home Office is to undertake a detailed study of how other countries deal with illegal drugs including forms of decriminalisation.

Crime Prevention Minister Jeremy Browne is being despatched to countries such as Portugal, which has "depenalised" small-scale possession, to gather evidence on what works.

But MPs' calls for a wide-ranging Royal Commission, backed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, have been rejected by the Government.

The fact-finding mission was unveiled in response to the Commons Home Affairs Committee which concluded last year that British policy was not working. After a year-long study, it said Ministers could learn from Portugal, where possession of small amounts of illegal drugs is not subject to criminal penalties.

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SUICIDE is a deep well of grief, reproach and guilt. But it is not an argument. When someone kills himself, we offer our deepest sympathy to those left behind, as I do to the family of Edward Thornber, the Manchester schoolboy who ended his own life after being caught with cannabis.

But we must not blame ourselves. In the end, those who take this sad step are the only ones responsible for it.

I know that some will accuse me of harshness and cruelty, even for discussing this. Please believe me when I say that this accusation is mistaken.

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A detective stole massive amounts of seized drugs and conspired to sell them with his brother in a plot that generated at least UKP600,000 for the pair, a court was told yesterday.

West Yorkshire police detective constable Nicholas McFadden, 38, helped himself to heroin, cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis worth tens of thousands of pounds by exploiting "slack" procedures at secret evidence stores, Leeds crown court was told.

McFadden, who was in charge of looking after evidence when he worked for a special organised crime group, and his brother Simon, 41, a debt collector, conspired to sell the illegal drugs, making at least UKP600,000 from the venture, it is alleged. The brothers "spent heavily but made so much money they didn't know what to do with it", jurors heard. They splashed out on exotic holidays, designer clothing, expensive jewellery and home improvements.

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It Would Save Money, Be Tough on Crime and Aid Global Security. What Could Be More Conservative?

Two European countries have decriminalised all drugs and disproved the argument that usage rises when prohibition is lifted

Afew weeks ago I had a coffee with one of the most admired Tory thinkers. A radical libertarian, he spent his time railing against the interventions of Europe and inadequacies of government, arguing how they combined to infringe basic freedoms. Given the stridency of his views and hostility to the state, I asked if he supported the legalisation of drugs. "Oh no," he said. "That's totally different. It's just wrong."

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CANNABIS is still being removed and six people questioned after a raid on one of the biggest drugs factories ever discovered in Worcestershire.

Six people were still being questioned today in connection with the discovery of a huge cannabis factory on the outskirts of Stourport.

A total of 14 arrests were made after approximately 2,000 cannabis plants in various stages of development were found early yesterday in an industrial unit off Barracks Road on the Sandy Lane industrial estate.

Officers also seized a large amount of growing equipment including heaters and lighting.

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STAFF at the Grimsby Institute taught students they were serious about a zero tolerance drugs policy with a random police dog inspection of the Nun's Corner campus, yesterday .

Officers from Humberside Police, South Yorkshire Police dog handler Paul Brackpool and passive indication drugs dog Duke began their inspection at 9am yesterday, visiting every classroom on the campus, having been invited in by Institute bosses.

The 2,000 students at Nun's Corner received no prior warning, but Duke found just one student holding a small amount of cannabis - although dozens more were searched after he picked up a scent.

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BARONESS Meacher has been lambasted for suggesting that youngsters switch from alcohol to "safer" drugs but the statistics suggest she makes a good point. Official estimates show there have been 200 deaths linked to Ecstasy here since 1996. That is about 12 deaths a year, or one a month.

Between 2009 and 2010 there were 8,790 alcohol-related deaths. That is 732 a month. Meanwhile, on average, smoking kills 80,000 every year.

Just because it is more socially acceptable, drinking is by no means a safer pastime for teenagers than taking drugs. In an ideal world, it would be better if they did neither but, as the saying goes, "kids will be kids". (Both are illegal to under 18s but that does not stop them).

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National policies need to be about reducing the impact of illegal drugs on Scotland, not initiatives that could result in their wider use, writes Neil McKeganey

IN MONDAY'S report from the Westminster's all-parliamentary group on drug policy reform, we have what has become the latest in a long line of calls for the legalisation of illegal drugs. For the advocates of drugs legalisation, the arguments seem disarmingly familiar and persuasive: our drug laws have failed to stem the flow of illegal drug use; many of those substances that are currently illegal are less harmful than tobacco or alcohol and, therefore, we should pursue an approach that legalises these and other forms of drug use.

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THE possession and use of all illegal drugs should be decriminalised, and the least harmful substances should be regulated and sold in licensed shops, an inquiry by a group of cross-party peers has found.

A system for testing the safety of new drugs should be introduced with low-risk substances sold with labels detailing their risks, like cigarette packaging, members of the all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform said today.

While the supply of the most dangerous substances should remain banned, users caught with a small quantity of any drug should not be penalised, the inquiry found.

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The least harmful new "legal highs" should be made readily available for sale under strictly regulated conditions rather than being immediately banned as happens now, according to a cross-party group of peers.

Senior police officers told the inquiry into the new psychoactive synthetic drugs, which are appearing in Britain at the rate of more than one a week, that the existing criminal sanctions for drug users are doing nothing to reduce their use.

Tim Hollis, the chief constable who chairs the Association of Chief Police Officers drugs committee, said the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act was not well positioned to deal with the more complex drugs scene which now exists in Britain.

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Millions of pounds seized from drug dealers should be funnelled into a new independent research body in a bid to tackle the country's drug problems, claim campaigners.

In a highly critical report, the UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) warns that a lack of leadership and high turnover of ministers and civil servants is hindering progress.

A new body funded by up to UKP10 million a year in cash raised through the confiscated assets of drug-related crime is required to improve drug policy, the UKDPC says, while politicians should establish a cross-party forum to decide where progress could be made.

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WEST Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner fears services to help criminals with drug problems will be seriously undermined by a new wave of spending cuts.

Mark Burns-Williamson, left, voiced concerns after the announcement that the Government was reducing community safety funding grants by 25 per cent nationally, from UKP120m to UKP90m. The equivalent cut would see West Yorkshire's allocation slashed from UKP5.3m to UKP3.975m,

Cash is currently provided to the police and partner organisations to promote community safety initiatives, including drug treatment and testing services.

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Deputy Prime Minister Says Politicians Know 'War On Drugs' Is Failing And Prime Minister Must Show Courage Over Issue

Divisions between David Cameron and Nick Clegg over Britain's "war on drugs" emerged on Friday after the Liberal Democrat leader said that current policy was not working and accused politicians of "a conspiracy of silence".

Committing his party to pledging a major review of how to tackle the drug problem in its 2015 election manifesto, Clegg claimed Britain was losing the war "on an industrial scale". He said Cameron should have the courage to look at issues such as decriminalisation or legalisation of drugs.

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