A quick history of the law
For thousands of years people all around the world have benefited from growing cannabis, it can be used to make ropes and twines, clothing, food, medicine and of course, it makes you high when it’s consumed.
That was until 28 September 1928, when Cannabis was added to the UK’s Dangerous Drugs Act.
This was due to international pressures from Cannabis being added to the International Opium Convention, a League of Nations treaty signed in 1925 (The League of Nations is an early forerunner of the United Nations). Britain did object to this amendment, as did India and several other countries, but to no avail.
And that has been how it is for the last 92 years. It is illegal to own, grow, sell, smoke, or otherwise consume cannabis in the UK.
Why the law is wrong and unjust.
Firstly, cannabis is the most widely used illegal substance in the UK. Most of these users are otherwise law abiding regular people, with jobs and families. Criminalising them offers no benefits to anyone.
Secondly, it’s hypocritical that it is perfectly acceptable to buy and consume alcohol and tobacco, substances which share the same links to addiction, cancer and mental health issues like schizophrenia. While prohibiting Cannabis for exactly these reasons.
Tobacco doesn’t even have any redeeming qualities. Unlike Cannabis and Alcohol it doesn’t give you a high, the only thing it does is stop you wanting more tobacco for twenty minutes!
Lastly, it should be pointed out that the UK is one of the largest legal exporters of Cannabis. British Sugar grows hundreds of thousands of cannabis plants for the pharmaceutical company GW Pharmaceutical.
British Sugar is run by a man called Paul Kenward, who coincidentally is married to Victoria Atkins, an MP who had publicly agreed with the prohibition of cannabis, until in 2018 when it became public knowledge and she then excused herself from policy or decisions relating to cannabis, including licensing
How the law should change
We would like to see the UK Cannabis industry, which is worth an estimated £3 billion a year, being legalised, regulated and taxed in a similar way to how alcohol and tobacco are.
- Minimum age of purchase/consumption
- Purchasable from Super markets, Local shops, and cannabis cafes.
- An official and regulated method of indicating the strength of shop bought cannabis (Like the ABV % on Alcoholic drinks)
- Allow people to consume and grow cannabis at home
- Have a reasonable rate of tax applied to the sale of cannabis.
Benefits of the proposed changes
Cannabis legalisation will free up countless thousands of police hours and allow them to be better spent tackling more serious criminal activity like knife crime.
Assuming a cannabis tax of 2% and standard VAT at 20%, this would provide an additional £660 million a year in additional revenue for the Government to better improve services like the NHS.
How you can help
We need to bring the issue to the forefront of conversation on a national level! And we need your help to do it.
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