Former Conservatives Leader, William Hague suggests legalising cannabis - Polidicks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44526156 Former Conservative leader Lord Hague has called for a "decisive change" in the law on cannabis - suggesting that the Tories should consider legalising recreational use of the drug. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said "any war" has been "irreversibly lost". Lord Hague goes further than senior Tories who have suggested a law change after a boy with epilepsy was given a special licence to use cannabis oil. The government is creating an expert panel to look into individual cases. It will not be looking at the legalisation or decriminalisation of the drug for recreational use, something Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out "because of the impact that [it has] on people's lives". Well, this is a surprising bit of news. I doubt it'll happen soon, but I am hopeful that we'll see legalisation in my lifetime.

Woo about damn time Here's to cheaper, better quality weed

Funnily enough, alcohol and tobacco both also have a huge impact on peoples' lives referring to PM May's statement, yet legislation to prevent their use never did work. What lesson do we learn from here? self control and reducing the preponderance of an underground market is more important than jailing somebody who had a few grams of weed in their pockets. At least somebody came to their senses and realized that.

Luckily, we don't jail people for that here unless you're found with ludicrous amounts. I think you just get a ticket for £80 if you're found with weed here, but I've never been caught so am not sure.

At least up here it's already practically decriminalised. I've never heard of anyone get more than a verbal warning from the police ie "don't let US catch you again or we might have to actually do something about it". For them give the slightest shit that you're smoking a joint you have to be doing it in a really public place, or be up to something else that's already got their attention. The writing's on the wall and the powers that be cover their eyes to it at the behest of tobacco and alcohol industry lobbyists.

Standard procedure is a Cannabis Warning for a first time offense, £80 or £90 on the spot fine for 2nd/3rd. Obviously escalates with large quantities, or for selling etc.

Fucking excellent. I don't even smoke anymore but this is such a good idea. We can tax it and funnel the money toward the NHS/border force/police. NHS needs cash and can solve any potential mental health effects. Border Force and the police can finally get the money to crack down on the worse drugs, to prevent MJ being a gateway drug (however I think it won't if you're buying it from a shop because you won't know the dodgy guy who can spike your shit with something else or give you freebies). This is a good thing and I hope this shifts the overton window enough for this to be seriously considered.

I think we need to be careful about how we legalise it. In recent years it has trended towards ultra strong strains that are going to be harmful to people's health. It's actually hard to find anything more mellow around here these day.

with legalisation comes regulation

I'd assume that kind of thing would be regulated and held to certain standards if weed was being sold legally. I wish they would hurry up and legalise cannabis because then I could actually buy some without ending up like my numpty mates who wind up smoking joints that are 50% weed and 50% their manky dealer's pubes lol.

I've always found this argument dumb. If people have stronger weed, they simply smoke less - it takes a while to kick in so it's easy to regulate one's dose with experience.

I agree, the only real thing is the ratio of THC to other cannabinoids. I've always preferred stuff that's more balanced in that regard, high-THC stuff tends to blow my head off, put me to sleep and not really do much otherwise. The thing is @Staines , we as consumers would have much broader choice and much better information with regards to these things, were it legalised and commercialised. Right now, your dealer will be selling out the one weight at a time so you get what you're given, usually with no real idea as to what it is til you've smoked it. If your dealer gives you options and knows what he's on about you're lucky.

It's true, we'd get more consumer choice. We'd probably essentially get craft strains, like the Dutch. The super strong stuff these days is what seems to be economical, and if that's the kind of thing that people want to buy in massive quantities, it could cost the NHS quite a lot. Will tax offset that? Maybe. Right now there's no revenue, so it's more or less tallying up the difference between it being more widespread, but taxes, and it being considerably less costly, but untaxed. There's also a question on how to tax it, when it has been underground for so long. But let's be honest tax collectors are far more effective than the police could ever dream of being.

First of all it's hard to debate that legalisation would mean more people consuming it when you have examples like Portugal to look at. I'm under the impression that the most harmful aspect of using cannabis is consumption through smoking it which isn't the only option. There's also no evidence to suggest stronger weed = greater harm. It's been argued that in some cases it can also exacerbate or trigger pre-existing mental conditions, but without a compelling argument for legalisation increasing use rates, it's moot. You can also bet your arse that if the sitting government were to begin the process of legalisation, taxation would be at the top of the agenda.

It's interesting to note that some areas the police don't really bother with reports of cannabis if purely because they got better things to do. As long as you aren't drug driving or smoking it in public in the middle of the street they won't bother.

Most true conservatives should be for legalizing cannabis. Many of Americas founding fathers and war heroes toked up quiet a bit.

Most cops around here have caught people I know with amounts that could get them jailed, and they've literally gone "ahhh, not meant to have that, are you mate? g'on." and waved them off. No confiscation, no warning, no fine, just "ah, not supposed to have that!"

I find that 50/50 strains give me the best results for dealing with depression (and, with some strains, also insomnia). 90+% thc-cbd ratio makes me have a "head-hit-with-frying-pan" high that, while fun, sucks giant balls if I'm alone and actually makes me have thoughts that lead to depressive spats. Also, I've never seen anyone get too high and freak out on 50/50, even when using strong dab pens.

I have seen that in my friend, and we arguably both developed a certain intolerance to weed after abusing it massively for years, finding that it makes us quite anxious when we smoke it now. Still, if I don't do it too often and smoke a reasonable amount, I am totally fine. It is a risk with weed, but it should still definitely be legal.

Again I would like to point out that the UK is the number 1 exporter of medicinal cannabis in the world. In fact I would probably think half the shit we get on the street is from them, judging by the consistent quality and variance in recent years.

I'm pretty sure the exported medicinal cannabis is something like sativex, not bud.

They still produced 95 tonnes of bud in a year though, what they used it for is their decision.