Possession of cannabis for personal use could still lead to a criminal conviction despite reclassification.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has published details of how cannabis possession will be policed after reclassification.

David Blunkett will lay an order before parliament which will see cannabis classified as a Class C drug.

Forum Response: Sane

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of Sane, told ePolitix.com: "We would be concerned if these guidelines meant that people thought that smoking cannabis was risk free.

"Justification for these news laws seems to be on the basis that cannabis is less harmful than other drugs, but for those prone to severe mental illness, particularly young people, using cannabis can provide the fatal trigger to lifelong illness and risk of suicide.

"If the government remains set on this course, it should invest in a major education campaign."

Forum Response: L. Ron Hubbard Foundation

A spokesman for the L.Ron Hubbard Foundation quoted L. Ron Hubbard: "The acceleration of widespread use of drugs such as LSD, heroin, cocaine, angel dust, marijuana, and a long list of others has contributed heavily to a debilitated society.

"Reportedly, some of these can cause brain and nerve damage. Marijuana, for example, so favoured by college students who are supposed to be getting bright today so they can be the executives of tomorrow, has been reported capable of causing brain atrophy. Even school children have been shoved into drugs. And children of drug-taking mothers have been born as druggies...

"The devastating physiological effects of drugs are the subject of newspaper headlines routinely. That they also result in a breakdown of mental alertness and ethical fibre is all too obvious."