Labour Should Back Legalising Cannabis.

UK Should Follow Canada’s Lead.

Canada legalises recreational cannabis use.

BBC.

Canada’s parliament has passed a law legalising the recreational use of marijuana nationwide.

The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed, and sold.

Canadians will be able to buy and consume cannabis legally as early as this September.

The country is the second worldwide to legalise the drug’s recreational use.

Uruguay became the first country to legalise the sale of cannabis for recreational use in December 2013, while a number of US states have also voted to permit it.

War on cannabis ‘comprehensively and irreversibly lost’, William Hague says.

Independent.

Current policy is ‘revealed to be inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date’.

William Hague has urged Theresa May to consider legalising cannabis as he claims the war on the drug has been “comprehensively and irreversibly lost”.

The remarks from the former foreign secretary heap political pressure on the prime minister amid an escalating row in the cabinet over the government’s approach to medical cannabis and growing outrage over a 12-year-old epileptic boy’s use of the drug.

The intervention from Mr Hague – Tory leader between 1997 and 2001 – also comes after Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, suggested a “different way” was required after cannabis oil was confiscated from Charlotte Caldwell.

The government has rejected a call from Lord Hague to consider legalising the recreational use of cannabis.

BBC

In an article for the Daily Telegraph, the former Tory leader said the war on cannabis had been “irreversibly lost” and a change of policy was needed.

His call was prompted by the case of a boy with epilepsy who was given a special licence to use cannabis oil.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has told MPs there will be a review of the medical use of cannabis in the UK.

The Home Office has set up an expert panel to review the rules on the therapeutic use of the drug, but a spokesman stressed that the existing laws on the recreational use of cannabis would not be changed.

“Any debate within government about the efficacy and therapeutic use of cannabis-based medicines emphatically does not extend to any review regarding the classification of cannabis and the penalties for the illicit possession, cultivation and trafficking of cannabis will remain the same.”

There are too many arguments in favour of legalising cannabis to list them all.

But the essential ones are:

• Cannabis smoking is a matter of personal choice and its alleged dangers are open to debate.
• The fact that it is illegal helps create a vast criminal industry.
• Those who fall foul of the law risk substantial penalties despite the de facto relaxation of the law, “Between 2010 and 2017, the number of cannabis possession offences has decreased by 48 per cent – from 160,733 to 83,591 as officers turn a blind eye to focus on other priorities.”
• Yet tolerance is itself a matter of where you live, “the realities of policing in 21st Century Britain, means in some areas of the country possession of cannabis has already effectively been decriminalised.” “Plenty of people smoke cannabis openly. You just have to look around you. The police aren’t interested in cracking down on it. For them it’s not a priority. They know that Class A drugs and alcohol are a far bigger issue in terms of anti-social behaviour and crime.” “Around the country users have also started to gather together at impromptu ‘cannabis cafes’, where they can buy they can either buy the drug or bring their own and enjoy it in the company of others.” (Telegraph).
• Past statistics, which are unlikely to have substantially changed, indicate that prosecution for possession of cannabis hits heaviest on black people (Ethnic Disparities In The Policing And Prosecution Of Drug Offences In England And Wales. 2013.)

Until recently statements from Labour by shadow Home Secretary Dianne Abbott failed to deal with this issue.

She said (March 2018).

“It is not Labour’s policy to legalise cannabis for recreational purposes. We would not be discussing the legalising of cannabis for recreational purposes.”

However, she said Labour would expand drug treatment facilities as a better way to cut the numbers of addicts than the criminal justice system.

But now (Politics Home) there is a chink in the Labour prudish armour emerging.

The Shadow Home Secretary, who just three months ago opposed relaxing laws around cannabis, called on ministers to drop the “heavy-handed and bureaucratic approach” to health-related drug use.

It comes amid the controversy surrounding a severe epilepsy sufferer’s mother having cannabis oil confiscated at Heathrow airport after flying in from Canada last week.

In the spirit of peace and love for which this Blog is celebrated we hail the position of Socialist Worker this week on the topic,

As Tories split over spliffs – we say legalise cannabis.

Former Conservative leader William Hague is the latest high profile Tory to call for cannabis law reform.

The Tories are split on the issue following the case of a 12 year old whose medicinal cannabis oil was confiscated at Heathrow Airport.

The Home Office returned some of the medicine to Billy Caldwell after medics confirmed he needed it to deal with severe epileptic seizures.

Hague called for a “decisive change” in the law. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the law wasn’t working properly. Yet Theresa May has played down the prospect of change.

Labour is divided too. Jeremy Corbyn said he backs legalisation of cannabis oil for medicinal purposes. But the party said last year that it remains opposed to wider legalisation.

Now Labour says it may have a review.

Cannabis is a Class B drug— after being reclassified by Labour from Class C in 2009. That means possession can lead to five years in jail. Police in England and Wales recorded over 83,000 offences for cannabis possession in 2016-17.

Yet it’s generally safer than legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. And many people use it to alleviate chronic pain and anxiety.

Socialist Worker believes that cannabis should be legalised for recreational and medicinal purposes. The “war on drugs” has failed and is a mechanism for hounding and harassing working class, poor and black people.