Legalization: A Homegrown Solution 1. THE BENEFITS In 2002 the Report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs recommended legalization and regulation of cannabis. According to the Oct.1, 2002 edition of the Sooke News Mirror (CN BC), "Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue," said Senator Nolin, who chaired the Senate Special Committee. Canadians should be allowed to "choose whether to consume or not in security." This report, according to Craig Jones, Ph.D., a Research Associate at Queen's Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, is "comprehensive in its command of the current international epidemiological, pharmacokinetic and sociological literature on drug use, thoroughly documented, honest about what we still do not know, clear in its mandate, decisive in its findings, and vastly informative. It replicates the conclusions of every other major study of its kind: that prohibition of cannabis is more harmful, both individually and socially, than the use of it and that the criminal prosecution of users ought to be abandoned."