UK Cannabis Legalisation Debate: We Need to Catch Up

Over the weekend, following a strong social media campaign, a petition calling for the UK government to consider debating the legalisation and regulation of cannabis reached 100,000 signatures. At the time the research for this article started, the number had gotten to 110,532, and is still climbing.

According to James Richard Owen, the individual who started the petition, “legalising cannabis could bring in £900m in taxes every year, save £400m on policing cannabis and create over 10,000 new jobs.” This would mean an extra £1.3 billion into the hands of the tax payer, even before the tax receipts come in from the alleged 10,000 jobs created.

Overall, both in the UK and globally, this petition has come at a time when public attitudes towards cannabis are shifting rapidly. Recently, three Police and Crime Commissioners had said that, in order to save money, police officers would not be expected to target those growing cannabis for personal recreational use. In defence of this controversial strategy, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham, Ron Hogg, had said: “When I say I don’t want to see small time personal users prosecuted, it’s because I don’t think it’s the best way of tackling harm. Nor do I think it is the best use of the scant resources of the police or the courts.”

But these shifting attitudes within the United Kingdom are just a microcosm of the wider international picture for cannabis. As most people are very well aware, the Netherlands for many years has had a very lax approach to the sale and cultivation of Cannabis, but according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the Netherlands has lower rates of drug use than some other European nations like France, which have harsher penalties.

Elsewhere in Europe, Portugal, way back in 2001, decriminalised possession of all forms of drugs from personal use. In the lead up to this policy change, the health of Portugal’s drug using population was abysmal, with HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis growing amongst drug users, particularly among those users who opted for injectable drugs. However after the shift in policy, both the rates of these infections as well as drug use more generally began to drop, with Portugal’s drug related deaths halved.

Then Uruguay, in 2014, became the first country to ever outright legalize Marijuana. Opting for a method whereby individuals can grow up to six plants or, if they wish to grow more, set up a ‘club’ which is allowed a 99 plant limit, this is a move which seems broadly popular, winning the left wing party who introduced the policy another term in Government, with 56% of the vote share.

Continuing our trip across the Atlantic, we can also look at what has been happening in the United States. The states of Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, as well as the District of Columbia have all legalised cannabis for recreational purposes, as well as many others who have legalised the drug for medicinal uses. Looking specifically at Colorado, with being the first state to legalize the substance, we see that in the financial year 2014-2015, the state gained over $100 million (£64 million) in tax revenues from marijuana alone.

This shows that as well as the health benefits that a more relaxed drug policy could bring, as we have seen in Portugal, and the basic principle of taking money out of the hands of those who operate in the black market, the tax benefits could be incredibly beneficial. And for a British government which is constantly banging on about balancing the books, should this not be something of serious consideration?

However, the fact that this is now being considered for a debate is not entirely a rosy picture. Even if the topic does get brought up for debate, which it may not, the Conservative party are unlikely to budge on their hard line against drugs, especially in light of their entirely irrational banning of ‘legal highs’, which is about as helpful as it is specific.

And as for the Labour Party, it is currently fighting a very fraught internal struggle over its identity and its role in modern British politics, and considering the interim Leader Harriet Harman was even in favour of accepting government welfare cuts, it is unlikely that this is a battle they would want to pick right now. Even then, the last set of Labour leaders were clear on their stance against loosening the laws around cannabis, and going back further, Government Advisor Dr. David Nutt was fired by the then Labour government after suggesting in an academic paper that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD were less harmful than both tobacco and alcohol.

But we have a petition which now, as I am coming to the end of this article, has 116,893 signatures and counting, and I imagine it will get many more before the article is published, and according to recent polling data, over half of Britons support the legalisation of cannabis. So things are, indeed, changing, and hopefully this petition, as well as the recent comments and decisions made by the aforementioned Police and Crime Commissioners, is allowing Britain to head towards a more sensible drug policy made for the 21st century, one that rejects the notion of prohibition as an unworkable ideal, and looks outward to the successes and failures from other parts of the world.