David Cameron dismisses MPs' calls to consider decriminalisation Also, we need to do more to keep drugs out of our prisons. These are the Government's priorities and I think we should continue with that rather than have some very, very long-term Royal Commission. The committee, which urged Mr Cameron to seize a "critical, now or never moment for serious reform," said the Home Office and Department of Health should take joint responsibility for drugs policy. The Coalition should also fund detailed studies of new systems in Washington and Colorado in the United States, where cannabis is being legalised, it said. But Jeremy Browne, a Home Office minister, said cannabis was more harmful than ever and will not be legalised. Mr Browne said the argument for decriminalising drugs does not make sense when usage of illegal substances from heroin to cannabis has fallen under current tough policies, while the number of people seeking dangerous "legal highs" has risen. "Although overall cannabis consumption is down, the strength of cannabis has gone up dramatically, about six or seven times stronger than it was a generation ago, it is the equivalent of people going from drinking a pint of beer to drinking a pint of neat vodka," he told BBC Radio Four's Today programme. The MPs also called for users caught in possession of drugs to have the charge wiped from their criminal record within three years to help overcome problems with finding jobs. And new laws should be brought in to prosecute both retailers who sell untested legal highs which go on to cause harm or death and senior officials in banks responsible for laundering the profits of drugs gangs. Keith Vaz, the committee's chairman, said there was no doubt Britain had failed to deal with dealers and vital areas of drugs policy have been "dangerously neglected."