LAST month the Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies made a political protest which led to him being formally arrested for possession of cannabis.

Although we do not support his deliberate breaking of criminal law we do support his campaign to raise the public awareness of the absurdity of the current sanctions regarding the possession and consumption of cannabis.

At a time when the Chief Constable of North Wales has called for a Royal Commission to look at the legalisation of all drugs and described the Home Secretary's proposed reform of the sanctions against cannabis as "timid", it is becoming obvious to all that the criminal prohibition of cannabis is not sustainable and that the sanctions are not being applied fairly or evenly throughout the country by the police.

Not only do our laws increasing not reflect the attitude of the public, particularly of youth, towards the recreational use of cannabis but they also ignore the promising medical benefits demonstrated in the preliminary data for controlled trials by GW Pharmaceuticals.

As, respectively, a former Minister of Health and a consultant psychiatrist with experience in this area, we join the rising number of voices arguing for a radical overhaul of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act based on scientific evidence and not prejudice or political dogma, and for this matter to be settled by Parliament not by local police forces.

John Bowis MEP, Conservative Health Spokesman, Dr Charles Tannock MEP, Conservative Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Brussels.