Robin Room and cannabis policy: dangerous comparisons.

This paper describes Robin Room's contribution to cannabis policy debates over the period 1993-2010. It focuses on a controversy that erupted over a review that Room and the author undertook for the World Health Organization in the mid-1990s on the comparative harms of cannabis, alcohol, opiates and tobacco. It also briefly describes Room's recent work on global cannabis policy and ends with a brief appreciation of the character of his scholarly contributions to this field.