No one doubts that drugs can be dangerous, but criminalizing those who engage causes even more harm. The families of Any`s Child have joined forces to advocate for legal control and regulation of the drug market to save lives and better protect our youth. The new German coalition is seeking to legalize cannabis. As the world around us changes, our political and media establishment will look more like disconnected dinosaurs. Perhaps this is why the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced the creation of a London Drug Commission to investigate British drug laws. He will face an uphill battle from people like former Home Secretary Priti Patel, who tweeted: «The mayor does not have the power to legalise drugs. They ruin communities, tear families apart and destroy lives,» presumably confusing Khan`s fact-finding mission with what it did in Rwanda. The latter is a strange line of attack, as Starmer also insisted that he would stick to the status quo in drug policy, reiterating only in October that «there is no reason to change drug laws across the UK and I would not go down that road». Studies consistently find a small association between excessive cannabis use and mental illness, but no widespread effect in society at large. Although the number of tokens (and the strength of what they smoke) has increased significantly since the 60s, schizophrenia rates in the UK have remained about the same during this period. And rates of psychosis have not increased in Washington, Colorado or Canada since legalization.

Regardless, the vast majority of smokers lead healthy and productive lives, as evidenced by legalized states that don`t fall into the stoned dystopia that fills Peter Hitchens` nightmares. Even if illicit drugs were as harmful as alcohol and tobacco, why provide even more harmful drugs? Drug criminalization has almost no impact on drug use, denies access to proven medical treatments, and disproportionately targets people of color. But the idea that drugs are «bad» and that drug users are criminals is enshrined in international and domestic law. How can we begin to change this vision? What are […] In the `60s, drugs became another front line in the culture wars, culminating in 1967 with the arrests of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Although Britain`s «war on drugs» was not as racist as in the United States, stereotypes of young black men as dealers or drug addicts crossed the pond and stoked racial tensions that exploded into riots in Bristol, Brixton and elsewhere in the 1980s. The medical use of cannabis was legalized following a decision by the Supreme Court of Bermuda in 2016. [68] [69] Even among relatively conservative countries, the United Kingdom is an exception. Right-wing politicians support legalization in Israel. And in the United States, once a world leader in the «war on drugs,» lawmakers are now debating social justice: a plan to correct the injustices of the war on drugs and give the condemned the best chance of succeeding in this legitimate new endeavor.

Marijuana has become so normalized that Washington state announced in June last year that it would give away free joints as part of a «Joints for Jabs» program as part of a Covid vaccination campaign. In 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, supported by Richard Branson and Judi Dench, called for a review. [79] The Interior Ministry`s response on behalf of the prime minister was: «We have no intention of liberalizing our drug laws. Drugs are illegal because they are harmful – they destroy lives and cause untold misery to families and communities. [79] This year marks the 50th anniversary in the United Kingdom of the Misuse of Drugs Act, the law criminalizing cannabis alongside other drugs. However, the public can see that the country`s drug policy is not working and is in urgent need of revision. Only 34% of German citizens supported the legalization of cannabis before the new government approved its implementation. In the UK, this figure is already significantly higher: according to YouGov, 48% are in favour of legalisation and only 24% are against. On Wednesday, Khan met with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and visited a cannabis dispensary and farm in the city to see what lessons can be learned in the UK to address drug challenges. Cannabis is illegal for recreational use in the UK and is classified as a Class B drug. In 2004, cannabis became a Class C drug with less severe penalties, but returned to Class B in 2009. The medical use of cannabis, when prescribed by a licensed specialist, was legalized in November 2018.

«The mayor does not have the power to legalize drugs. They ruin communities, tear families apart and destroy lives,» she said. This story has become common in the last century at the epicenter of the war on drugs, the United States.