Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Legal cannabis the only solution, says UK report

Legalisation of cannabis 'only solution to crime and addiction problems' | Society | The Guardian - Carolyne Davies:

November 21, 2016 - "Cannabis should be legalised in the UK, according to a report that has the backing of several cross-party MPs including the former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

"Current cannabis policy in Britain is a 'messy patchwork' of legislation intermittently enforced by regional police and an embarrassment, says the report by the free-market thinktank the Adam Smith Institute.

"The government must recognise that legalising the Class B drug is the 'only workable solution to the problems of crime and addiction in the UK and modernise and legalise', the report says.

"Politicians and the public should recognise the UK’s drug strategy 'has failed in its core aims to prevent people from using drugs, manufacturing drugs, and to put a stop to the crime, corruption and death that is taking place on an industrial scale around the world'.

"The report, The Tide Effect: How the World is Changing Its Mind on Cannabis Legislation, says legalisation would ensure the drug meets acceptable standards, remove criminal gangs from the equation, raise revenue for the Treasury and protect public health.

"A legal cannabis market could be worth £6.8bn annually, providing up to £1bn to the Treasury. It would also lower criminal justice costs, with 1,363 inmates currently in prison in England and Wales for cannabis-related offences at a cost to the taxpayer of £50m a year, the report says.

"Legal regulation would also allow long-term studies of the drug’s health effects that are not currently possible, it says."

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/21/uk-should-legalise-cannabis-adam-smith-institute-report
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