As California becomes the latest state to make cannabis legal, should the UK also go down this route ?

California has become the latest state in the USA to legalise the use of cannabis. From 01/01/18, people over 21 will be able to have up to an ounce and grow up to six plants at home for personal use.

The question I ask is should the UK also go down this route in the not-so-far off future, thus cutting out the ever growing black market sale of the drug, with pure uncut produce on sale from say, a chemist. Or should the UK remain anti-cannabis, with stricter laws being put in place by out of touch politicians.

There must be a Government dept looking at what is happening in the USA, eyeing up the pros and cons of making cannabis legal, how much tax could be generated, what burden it may create and moving money and resources to combating much harder, dangerous drugs like crack-meth-heroin et al.

I believe that it could be legalised in the UK one day, but when is the big question. If the USA are doing it now, surely this country will follow.

Country by country laws on cannabis

Personally the stink of it makes me urge.....if theres a proven medicinal benefit then let hospitals prescribe it if not definate no from me

harvetheslayer wrote:

Personally the stink of it makes me urge.....if theres a proven medicinal benefit then let hospitals prescribe it if not definate no from me

I was listeming to the radio late last night and the debate was on the California move and the tax returns from other states that had ready made cannabis legal.

By all accounts, healthy tax returns have been reported from those other states, with the money going to a number beneficial causes.

Once, when I was at college, I had a pint in a pub, but I never swallowed.

beesrus wrote:

Once, when I was at college, I had a pint in a pub, but I never swallowed.

This REPORT was interesting to read.

The cannabis tax addiction

Portugal have an interesting way of dealing with various drugs. There was an article in the grauniad (of which I cannot find) which gave a reasonable precis.

My husband's dissertation was about decriminalisation versus legalisation of cannabis. I can't remember his conclusion but my first thought is if you can change something into a tax then it sort of legalises it. (twas also about 20 years ago so times may have changed).

If you take away the illicit stuff does it make less exciting and desirable? Ergo.............

I need a spliff just to be able to cope with this utter and complete clusterfuck of a football club and it's ensuing shenanigans. FFS.

The whole drugs thing is a bit weird given that if we accept alcohol usage then using mind-altering substances for recreational purposes is obviously not entirely taboo and yet drugs are illegal. It doesn't make sense.

Nor does prohibiting drug usage work if you want to stop people using drugs. It could even be argued that the illegality of the drug trade plays into the arms of organised crime - and there's all sorts of examples of this with alcohol prohibition in the USA being spectacularly ineffective.

If the usage of drugs creates a problem then the only solution is to remove it from the sphere of illegality and from there drug users can either buy their stuff legally or step forward for treatment without the fear of being prosecuted.

I'm sure the treasury would eagerly gobble up the taxation which would give the whole economy a shot in the arm, as it were, and the hospitals would much rather that quality control existed so that people were only taking their drug of choice rather than some dodgy crap cut with god alone knows what.

Alternatively we can just maintain the current illegal status and crack down on druggies as criminals. It hasn't worked yet in the couple of hundred years we've been doing it but it might work one day.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Alternatively we can just maintain the current illegal status and crack down on druggies as criminals. It hasn't worked yet in the couple of hundred years we've been doing it but it might work one day.

Because we are too bloody soft on end users thats why.....!!!   Lead in time of 1 year and after that caught as an end user with one tab of anything 1 gram of coke or whatever and mandatory 5 year stretch
Dealers 10 years first conviction thereafter life.

The annual cost in savings from the wreckage these users cause could build the jails required 10 times over.  Go to UAE where just one tab in transit gets you a 4 stretch. Social media works there every forum I'm on on travel warns of Dubai Abu Dhabi Doha etc etc

5 years no messing around 10 the second time but with a years lead in time for people to get clean

Drugs are the only subject i have a real strong opinion on (apart from kicking Nools arse)

Putting most people in jail for drug use isn't going to help.  Big dealers going to jail obviously does help.

Legalize all or most drugs.

Take out or at least greatly reduce the criminal element and use the vast amount of money involved in the drug trade for the better of the public good.  It is after all...  Their money!

I and others can buy all the booze we want - we for the most part, are not alcoholics.
I and most people I know in Los Angeles, could easily buy almost any drug we wanted -but we for the most part don't, and aren't addicts either.

Like abortion, you can ban the practice, but it's never going to stop people doing it.  Better then, that abortion be safe.

There has to be a better route to go, where you deal with the 'drug problem' in a manner where the good guys make and keep the money from the drug trade, and where that same money is used to give help to those that need it to reduce their problem with addiction.

Therefore benefiting all society.

harvetheslayer wrote:

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Alternatively we can just maintain the current illegal status and crack down on druggies as criminals. It hasn't worked yet in the couple of hundred years we've been doing it but it might work one day.

Because we are too bloody soft on end users thats why.....!!!   Lead in time of 1 year and after that caught as an end user with one tab of anything 1 gram of coke or whatever and mandatory 5 year stretch
Dealers 10 years first conviction thereafter life.

The annual cost in savings from the wreckage these users cause could build the jails required 10 times over.  Go to UAE where just one tab in transit gets you a 4 stretch. Social media works there every forum I'm on on travel warns of Dubai Abu Dhabi Doha etc etc

5 years no messing around 10 the second time but with a years lead in time for people to get clean

Drugs are the only subject i have a real strong opinion on (apart from kicking Nools arse)

For starters you'd end up with massive numbers going to jail and the prisons couldn't cope and It won't work anyway if you do because our prisons seem to be awash with drugs if many reports well-publicised reports are accurate.

Out of curiosity why are you so anti-drugs but, I assume, accepting of alcohol?

Alcohol is addictive, it wrecks lives and causes all sorts of social harm from random acts of violence to drunk driving to family breakdown to domestic abuse to various bodily failures. It is just as bad as drugs in all sorts of ways.

On the other hand millions of people enjoy a drink and it goes no further than that. This is also true for many drug users.

I can't see much difference between the two.

More people are killed in the western world (ultimately) by sugar, than alcohol.

Knife crime punishment has also become weaker....we where told zero tolerance years back.....the solution now seems to be death on the streets.

Bet you caned the pot during the 60s zyph man.

harvetheslayer wrote:

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Alternatively we can just maintain the current illegal status and crack down on druggies as criminals. It hasn't worked yet in the couple of hundred years we've been doing it but it might work one day.

Because we are too bloody soft on end users thats why.....!!!   Lead in time of 1 year and after that caught as an end user with one tab of anything 1 gram of coke or whatever and mandatory 5 year stretch
Dealers 10 years first conviction thereafter life.

The annual cost in savings from the wreckage these users cause could build the jails required 10 times over.  Go to UAE where just one tab in transit gets you a 4 stretch. Social media works there every forum I'm on on travel warns of Dubai Abu Dhabi Doha etc etc

5 years no messing around 10 the second time but with a years lead in time for people to get clean

Drugs are the only subject i have a real strong opinion on (apart from kicking Nools arse)

Qatar and the UAE are obviously shining beacons of society

harvetheslayer wrote:

.....if theres a proven medicinal benefit then let hospitals prescribe it if not definate no from me

Some years ago my son started smoking the stuff and it worried me stiff. One minute he was in a dreamlike state and the next he exploded like a volcano - he even attacked me once.

Thankfully, he was so ashamed he apologised to me and his mother and never touched the stuff again.

It is like any other product consumed by humans. As we are all different these products react in different ways. Some people can take drugs, enjoy the process, recover over the next day or two and carry on with life, which is also the same for alcohol. Other people either have a low tolerance for the product or they over indulge which can result in illness or the person behaving in an abnormal manner. This behaviour can have a negative impact on others. There are also certain foods that can change a person's behaviour and as a result some people have allergies. Therefore they should all be treated the same and made legal.

Legalise it all give junkies a scrip which costs pennies cuts down on problems with shit adulterated product take money away from violent criminals ect.
As for pot it's a plant if I want to smoke it or shove crack up my crack wtf had that git to do with anyone else?
The revenue could be massive but this government
Would feck implementation of the new law up in minutes and it would soon revert to the black market.
As Hippo says Portugal has it bang on and reducing a lot of their drug problems as are Holland it's all there to find if you are open to change.
The war on drugs is the most corrupt expensive ineffective policy in the history of humankind.
As for the prisons I'd sabe them for the pimps, of you have ever been convicted of any offence concerning the abuse of women I'd shave your hair off tattoo monster on your forehead castrate you and never allow you to have a passport not even when you've finished your thirty years jail stretch.
Right wheres my charas?