For example, in recent years there have been many claims of increased strength or potency (are they the same thing?) but there is scant information to base such claims on because proper records of "street" cannabis based on statistically valid sampling methods have never been done.

Of course, if cannabis were legal we would know the strength.

Not from surveys of what's on sale but because it could be properly regulated at the point of production. It would say how strong it was on the packet.

This is just one example of what a pragmatic approach to law reform could achieve, there are many others besides.

Cannabis pragmatism aims to campaign for laws which both reduce the potential for harm to a minimum and protect the vulnerable.

Far from being being "pro pot" or "drug liberal" cannabis pragmatism is a campaign for effective and enforceable laws.

People use cannabis, they want to buy it and as there's money involved someone will supply it. That is the nature of capitalism, the driving force of our society.

A pragmatic approach to law reform doesn't claim cannabis is harmless - indeed we wish to draw attention to the potential risks because they should form the basis of the regulatory approach.

As with all things we must have reliable and firm data on which to base our laws and to do that we have to be able to measure and quantify the supply side. Prohibition makes this impossible.

Pragmatic cannabis law reform is a campaign for drugs policy toward cannabis based on proper control and regulation of the commercial supply coupled with effective harm reduction measures.

As long as the demand exists for a commercial cannabis supply, there will be one. The issue is therefore how, not whether, we manage it.

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