Cannabis ‘to be legalised in the UK’ within five to ten years, say MPs
A group of MPs from different parties said that the United Kingdom could fully legalize cannabis use within a decade after a study visit to Canada.
David Lammy of the Labour Party, Sir Norman Lamb and Conservative MP Jonathan Janogly visited the country to study the legal weed market created after the drug was decriminalized last year.
A member of Tottenham’s parliament said he had changed his position on drugs, deciding to support legalization in retreating from the official position of his party.
“I want the market to be legalised, regulated and taken away from crime gangs,” Tottenham MP said in an interview with the BBC. ” I want to see the strength of the stuff reduced, labelled and properly organised in this country.”
His change of heart was welcomed by some Lammy party members, including MP Jeff Smith, co-founder of the Drug Policy Reform Campaign.
“Labour need to be bold in tackling this issue so I really welcome David’s comments – he has been out to see the evidence for himself and has reached a sensible conclusion with harm reduction at its core. I hope more politicians will do the same,” said Manchester MP Wingington.
“There would be huge benefits if we legalised and regulated cannabis in the same way we do alcohol,” added Mr Smith, co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on drug policy reform. “We will stop wasting police time and resources by criminalizing people without necessity.”
Both Sir Norman and Mr. Lammy, who funded their own flights and accommodation in Canada, said they believed the drug would be legalized in five years.
Sir Norman was the first active British parliamentarian to openly take a cannabis product on camera after taking an oil sample – which, unlike its form in the UK, included the THC – for the Newsbeat documentary on a trip to Canada.
The Liberal, who led his party’s official support for cannabis legalization, spoke openly about how he used cannabis oil “for sleep” and “for recreation”.
He said it was “ridiculous” – he had to flush the cannabis oil containing THC down the toilet before returning home, because returning him to the UK would be a criminal act.
THC is a connection in cannabis that attracts users. Cannabis is prohibited for recreational use in the UK, although it can be prescribed for therapeutic purposes.
Mr. Canogly disagreed on how long it would take the UK to allow cannabis to be used for recreational purposes, predicting that legalization would take at least 10 years and possibly up to 15 years.
” I think we have got a lot to learn before the legalization of recreational cannabis, which I think will happen at some point,” he said.
MP Tory said that building legal cannabis plants in the UK could help increase employment in former industrial cities. ” I don’t know about the scale involved, but cannabis is now roughly half a per cent of GDP, so it must be creating jobs somewhere,” he said.
A study tour of the deputies was organized by Volte Face, the British harm reduction group.