MPs are to debate government policy on drugs in the House of Commons later.
A group of backbench MPs from all parties will call on the government to conduct a review of the "failing" 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act during the debate, brought by Green MP Caroline Lucas.
It comes as the Home Office publishes two separate reports into different approaches to drug misuse around the world and legal highs in the UK.
The Home Office has said it is not considering any shift in drugs policy.
But MPs want a review to be published within the next 12 months.
Thursday's debate was agreed to by the Commons Backbench Business Committee - after an e-petition calling for an impact assessment of drugs laws was signed by 135,000 people - and its conclusions will not be binding on the government.
But the symbolically important session will focus attention on UK attitudes towards drugs and highlight coalition divisions between the Conservatives and their Lib Dem coalition partners.
Home Office study
The motion to be considered by MPs on Thursday contends that an "evidence-based approach" should be at the centre of an effective drugs policy and calls on the government to consider "all the alternatives to the UK's failing drug laws".
Ms Lucas told the BBC earlier this month the motion "has been deliberately worded so as to be as uncontroversial as possible".
She added that much of the debate by MPs on drugs was "knee-jerk" and that many of the public were "far ahead" of politicians, saying: "There's a lot of evidence that prohibition simply isn't working.
"We want to get MPs recognising that there is a need for a comprehensive debate."
After a visit to South America earlier this year, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg called for a far-reaching change of approach to drugs policy in the UK, focusing more on treatment rather than punishment.
Mr Clegg wants responsibility for drug addiction to be moved from the Home Office to the Department of Health, a move also supported by some Labour MPs.
But although the Home Office minister in charge of drugs policy, Norman Baker, is a Lib Dem MP, Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May has made clear no major changes are on the agenda, maintaining that existing approaches are working.
Its supporters former Labour defence secretary Bob Ainsworth and Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert.
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