Pubdate: Saturday, 14 Nov 1998 Source: British Medical Journal 1 (Volume 317, Issue 7169) Copyright: 1998 by the British Medical Journal Website: Contact: http://www.bmj.com/ Reviewer: Douglas Carnall Reviews WEBSITE OF THE WEEK http://www.ukcia.org/ The UK Cannabis Internet Activists met on line back in 1995, taught themselves HTML (the markup language used by all web browsers), and got to work on building a site that is clearly organised and nice to look at. A site edited by partisans must be interpreted with caution, but the approach seems responsible and incorporates links or references to information from many reputable sources. These include the BMA, whose report recommending a change in the law to allow research on the use of cannabinoids in chronic illness, published almost a year ago to the day, has plainly been influential. This week the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee concurs (p 1337), and there seems little doubt that change in the law will follow. Events in the United States are moving in the same direction, following pressure from groups such as the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp ( http://www.crrh.org/ ). A total of seven states covering a fifth of the nation's population have directly contradicted federal drug laws in recent referendums. Far more sites argue for reform than for the status quo: despite an assiduous morning's browsing on a high speed network, anti-drug sites proved elusive. On the internet at least, those fighting the war on the "war on drugs" are definitely winning. While advocacy abounds, hard scientific evidence about cannabis is hard to find. There are, for example, no trials reported at http://www.controlled-trials.com/, although its presence refutes earlier reports ( http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/317/7167/1258/c ) that the website does not exist. Hint for press officers: if you want to publicise your website take care to supply the correct URL. - --- Checked-by: Richard Lake