... earache and treating jaundice, and was recommended as it "consumeth wind and drieth the seed (semen)". (John Gerard. 1597) The only controls of medicine in the United Kingdom were provided by the pharmacopoeias which set quality standards for the preparation of drugs but in 1968 the Medicines Act was produced following the Thalidomide tragedy. It gave the Government the power to license pharmaceutical companies, individual products and clinical trials and also established the Medicines Committee and the Committee on the Safety of Medicines to advise the government on its new powers. Cannabis was still listed as a prescribed drug though it was rarely prescribed except to patients that were already drug abusers, and in 1971 its licence was revoked thereby prohibiting medical use altogether. There appears to be two parts to the argument surrounding the legalisation of cannabis, its medical uses and its use as a recreational drug, and this ...

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