Source: http://www.physorg.com/news142159307.html

Webmaster's note: It is apparent that the harmful social effects of alcohol are exponentially higher than Marijuana but now those who claimed pot to be 7 times worse for your health than a cigarette is will be forced to change their views, & my little hunch that given liver failure does not occur with marijuana use, nor does one get 'drunk' on it, has also been confirmed. The real reason why substances that make you think & question have been made illegal needs to be addressed!
I believe it would be quite difficult for all these industries to exist, & have everyone working 4 months out of the year entirely for the government in income taxes, when the textile, oil, food, wood industries could be replaced sustainably with hemp. 

The Beckley Foundation, a charity which numbers senior British and other academics among its advisors, said banning cannabis has no impact on supply and turns users into criminals.

"Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," says the report by the Foundation's Global Cannabis Commission.

The British government is pressing for cannabis to be re-classified in law as a Class B drug compared with its current, less serious, Class C classification.

Authorities are concerned notably by the growing prevalence of the potent "skunk" form of the drug. Around 80 percent of cannabis seizures are of this strain, said to be linked to mental health problems, official figures show.

The Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust, claimed only two deaths worldwide have been attributed to cannabis, while alcohol and tobacco use together kill an estimated 150,000 people in Britain alone.

"Many of the harms associated with cannabis use are the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment," it said.

"It is only through a regulated market that we can better protect young people from the ever more potent forms of dope," it added.

The decision to reclassify cannabis upwards into the more punitive Class B category -- which includes amphetamines -- is a U-turn for Britain's Labour government.

Cannabis was downgraded from Class B when Tony Blair was prime minister, but Gordon Brown announced a review of its status soon after taking over in June last year.

An earlier review of the cannabis classification, at the time of the last 2005 general election, resulted in it remaining Class C.