One of two eminent Irish doctors who is calling for cannabis to be legalised, Dr Garrett McGovern gave his expert opinion on the substance and why regulated legalisation is the right way forward.

Dr McGovern has worked in addiction treatment for 15 years (particularly for heroin) and, having witnessed the multitude of ways people and their families are affected by strictly forbidden substances, he believes that, "it is the very illicit nature of drugs that makes them so deadly."

"What I know about cannabis from the studies that are out there," the doctor continues. "Is that a lot of these links that they have professed as cause and effect', such as lung cancer, mental illness particularly psychosis and now the new one, strokes, which I read last week, doesn't stand under the scrutiny of good peer-reviewed research."

The full interview with Stuart Clark:

Dr Garrett McGovern from Hot Press on Vimeo.