The ‘New Deal for Cannabis’.
How safe is cannabis? How dangerous is cannabis prohibition?
Cannabis should not be used as a political football. It’s treatment in society should be decided in a rational and informed manner. Education not prohibition is the answer.
The government argues that we need cannabis prohibition for health reasons to protect the public. Of course it is the government’s duty to protect the public, but prohibition is a crude method of social control which has failed and instead of protecting the public, puts the public’s health in mortal danger, especially young people.
The most dangerous thing about cannabis today is cannabis prohibition.
The cannabis issue is not only about ‘How safe is cannabis?’, but also raises the question; ‘How dangerous is cannabis prohibition?’.
The answer is that it is very dangerous. Prohibition puts the sale and distribution of a popular recreational and medical drug used by millions of people in Britain in the hands of unlicensed dealers who often have little regard for issues of purity, quality control and other health related issues as would be required if it was a legal product.
Yes there are some dangers in the use of cannabis which should be recognised and understood. However every year thousands are killed or seriously maimed by cars yet we do not ban them. It is possible to kill yourself with a pack of parcetamol from Boots, yet it is impossible to do the same consuming any amount of cannabis.
It costs the tax payer about one billion pounds a year to enforce cannabis prohibition, while the currently illegal cannabis trade is worth several times that, and is even ‘subsidised’ by the state thanks to it being VAT and tax free. It has been estimated that taxing the cannabis trade in Britain could bring in up to two billion a year.
Cannabis prohibition is the most expensive mistake in British legal history.
Therefore the only safe and sensible solution, which protects the health of the public, is the lifting of cannabis prohibition, to be replaced by the establishment of legal regulation of quality and distribution, just like any other consumer product.
Anything less fails to protect the public, especially the young and vulnerable, from the serious health and social problems associated with cannabis prohibition, while wasting huge sums of tax payer’s money on a bankrupt policy.
The failure of this government and past governments to address these issues despite so much evidence and the advice of countless experts amounts to nothing less than dereliction of duty for which history will have to judge them harshly.
The solution is a ‘New Deal for Cannabis’:
- The lifting of cannabis prohibition to allow freedom for the growing, licensed sale, and safe social or medical use of cannabis in Britain.
- Quality controls & Health & Safety Regulations as with any other product to protect consumers.
- Distribution through licensed premises and non-profit cannabis buyer’s cooperatives & clubs, plus the right to ‘grow your own’.
- The immediate release of all cannabis prisoners and clearing of all cannabis criminal records.