Frank Young is the Editorial Director at the Civitas think tank
Every so often a media hungry politician will pop up to say we should get on with legalising cannabis. It’s a good way to get on the telly and, presumably, they think it works well with a certain kind of voter. Last month it was the Mayor of London’s turn. Sadiq Khan aimed to set up a bizarre committee to investigate legalising cannabis in the capital, despite the issue being absolutely nothing to do with the Mayor of London. Our devolution patchwork means we see efforts to ban coffee in Wales and legalise cannabis in London.
The public debate on cannabis is dominated by pro-legalisation voices. There are lobbying firms that promise to influence “public debate” on behalf of clients looking to cash in on cannabis legalisation. As they might. The potential cannabis market in the UK is estimated to be worth more than £2.5 billion. There is money to be made from legal weed.
Our police are going soft too. Only last week a chief constable for one of the country’s biggest forces told MPs that tackling cannabis use was wasting police time. Our political class seems to be dominated by voices calling for the legalisation of cannabis. It is a lop-sided debate with too few people willing to make the case for keeping cannabis illegal and cracking down on cannabis use.
That’s why wonks at Civitas recently teamed up with Deltapoll to publish a large-scale survey asking Brits about their cannabis use. Our poll of almost 4,500 adults found that cannabis use would surge by almost two-thirds if it was legalised – with six million Britons who don’t already smoke cannabis saying they would give it a go. This figure alone should make politicians stop and think before cravenly bowing to pressure to unleash a wave of new cannabis users on the UK.
Not surprisingly, given its huge size, London tops the league for the most potential new cannabis users. If the Mayor of London got his way, almost 800,000 Londoners who don’t smoke cannabis would give it a go.
At a time when health chiefs are working out how to help the country kick the nicotine habit, we need to ask whether we need millions of extra Brits getting high. Worryingly, a million and a half parents of primary school children would take up cannabis if Westminster politicians voted to legalise the drug.
Our poll also found that a million young adults across Britain would pick up a joint for the first time. This should worry Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, who is rumoured to be launching a new white paper on public health in the coming weeks. The science is increasingly clear on the link between cannabis use among young people and psychotic disorders.
In Portugal, where cannabis has been decriminalised, there has been a thirty-fold increase in reported psychosis cases linked to cannabis use. Closer to home, when Scottish police officers took a super soft approach to cannabis use, psychiatric admissions to hospitals linked to cannabis use rose by almost three quarters.
We already have a mental health crisis in this country without millions of extra cannabis users flooding our hospitals. It’s difficult to see how this would spark anything other than another health crisis which we can barely afford and hardly need.
Newspapers are full of the violence that manifests from the paranoia created by this drug, with all too often cannabis use and related mental health issues being a feature of grizzly murders and attempted murders.
We wanted to find out what Britain’s parents thought. Parents seldom get a look in when politicians talk about legalising cannabis. A third told us that getting hold of cannabis is as ‘easy as ordering a pizza’. Despite the almost constant argument made in favour of legalisation by well-funded lobby groups, half of Britain’s parents are worried about their children using cannabis and say cannabis legalisation would make their job harder.
British parents also understand that legalising cannabis wouldn’t stop drug dealers from peddling drugs to children, with only 8 per cent of parents saying the move would stop dealers from targeting young people. Previous research backs this up, with street dealers telling researchers that if the country legalised cannabis they would simply undercut high street chemists and supermarkets and it would do nothing to stop gang violence.
Proponents of legalisation admit that they would heavily tax legal cannabis to create a high-value luxury product affordable only to middle-class users. ‘Waitrose Woman’ might be the latest target group for Tory strategists but that shouldn’t extend to selling her luxury weed. In California, where cannabis has been legal for some time, the illegal market is now three times the size of the legal market.
Our political class also seems to be badly out of step with parents when it comes to the role of schools dealing with cannabis in the corridors. Half of parents back schools who call in the police if cannabis use is suspected among pupils, with non-white parents the most supportive of schools calling the cops. Four in ten parents think schools should routinely test and search pupils for cannabis – a figure that jumps to half for non-white parents.
These tough-minded parents also back stop and search in big numbers. Seven out of ten of them told us they want the police shaking down people suspected of using cannabis to get drugs off our streets. Once again the figures were highest among non-white parents. We don’t hear this viewpoint on the airwaves, but then again no one bothers to ask parents what they think.
It turns out British parents want our political class and in particular, police chiefs, to take a much tougher approach to cannabis being peddled to under 18s. The Home Secretary is currently mulling over the appointment of a new Metropolitan police chief and should listen to parents when they say they want the police (and the Government) to get tougher on cannabis being peddled to their children.
Police Commissioners need to show their worth and make it clear they won’t listen to well-funded lobby groups looking to make a quick buck. Unlike other drugs, cannabis stays in the system for weeks. We need to be testing those caught in a cannabis haze and put users on courses to spell out the harm.
Money from these courses should pay for more bobbies on the beat. We should finally realise the vision of community payback with pot head litter picks sending a clear message – the parents of Britain don’t want your drugs on our streets or in our classrooms.
Frank Young is the Editorial Director at the Civitas think tank
Every so often a media hungry politician will pop up to say we should get on with legalising cannabis. It’s a good way to get on the telly and, presumably, they think it works well with a certain kind of voter. Last month it was the Mayor of London’s turn. Sadiq Khan aimed to set up a bizarre committee to investigate legalising cannabis in the capital, despite the issue being absolutely nothing to do with the Mayor of London. Our devolution patchwork means we see efforts to ban coffee in Wales and legalise cannabis in London.
The public debate on cannabis is dominated by pro-legalisation voices. There are lobbying firms that promise to influence “public debate” on behalf of clients looking to cash in on cannabis legalisation. As they might. The potential cannabis market in the UK is estimated to be worth more than £2.5 billion. There is money to be made from legal weed.
Our police are going soft too. Only last week a chief constable for one of the country’s biggest forces told MPs that tackling cannabis use was wasting police time. Our political class seems to be dominated by voices calling for the legalisation of cannabis. It is a lop-sided debate with too few people willing to make the case for keeping cannabis illegal and cracking down on cannabis use.
That’s why wonks at Civitas recently teamed up with Deltapoll to publish a large-scale survey asking Brits about their cannabis use. Our poll of almost 4,500 adults found that cannabis use would surge by almost two-thirds if it was legalised – with six million Britons who don’t already smoke cannabis saying they would give it a go. This figure alone should make politicians stop and think before cravenly bowing to pressure to unleash a wave of new cannabis users on the UK.
Not surprisingly, given its huge size, London tops the league for the most potential new cannabis users. If the Mayor of London got his way, almost 800,000 Londoners who don’t smoke cannabis would give it a go.
At a time when health chiefs are working out how to help the country kick the nicotine habit, we need to ask whether we need millions of extra Brits getting high. Worryingly, a million and a half parents of primary school children would take up cannabis if Westminster politicians voted to legalise the drug.
Our poll also found that a million young adults across Britain would pick up a joint for the first time. This should worry Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, who is rumoured to be launching a new white paper on public health in the coming weeks. The science is increasingly clear on the link between cannabis use among young people and psychotic disorders.
In Portugal, where cannabis has been decriminalised, there has been a thirty-fold increase in reported psychosis cases linked to cannabis use. Closer to home, when Scottish police officers took a super soft approach to cannabis use, psychiatric admissions to hospitals linked to cannabis use rose by almost three quarters.
We already have a mental health crisis in this country without millions of extra cannabis users flooding our hospitals. It’s difficult to see how this would spark anything other than another health crisis which we can barely afford and hardly need.
Newspapers are full of the violence that manifests from the paranoia created by this drug, with all too often cannabis use and related mental health issues being a feature of grizzly murders and attempted murders.
We wanted to find out what Britain’s parents thought. Parents seldom get a look in when politicians talk about legalising cannabis. A third told us that getting hold of cannabis is as ‘easy as ordering a pizza’. Despite the almost constant argument made in favour of legalisation by well-funded lobby groups, half of Britain’s parents are worried about their children using cannabis and say cannabis legalisation would make their job harder.
British parents also understand that legalising cannabis wouldn’t stop drug dealers from peddling drugs to children, with only 8 per cent of parents saying the move would stop dealers from targeting young people. Previous research backs this up, with street dealers telling researchers that if the country legalised cannabis they would simply undercut high street chemists and supermarkets and it would do nothing to stop gang violence.
Proponents of legalisation admit that they would heavily tax legal cannabis to create a high-value luxury product affordable only to middle-class users. ‘Waitrose Woman’ might be the latest target group for Tory strategists but that shouldn’t extend to selling her luxury weed. In California, where cannabis has been legal for some time, the illegal market is now three times the size of the legal market.
Our political class also seems to be badly out of step with parents when it comes to the role of schools dealing with cannabis in the corridors. Half of parents back schools who call in the police if cannabis use is suspected among pupils, with non-white parents the most supportive of schools calling the cops. Four in ten parents think schools should routinely test and search pupils for cannabis – a figure that jumps to half for non-white parents.
These tough-minded parents also back stop and search in big numbers. Seven out of ten of them told us they want the police shaking down people suspected of using cannabis to get drugs off our streets. Once again the figures were highest among non-white parents. We don’t hear this viewpoint on the airwaves, but then again no one bothers to ask parents what they think.
It turns out British parents want our political class and in particular, police chiefs, to take a much tougher approach to cannabis being peddled to under 18s. The Home Secretary is currently mulling over the appointment of a new Metropolitan police chief and should listen to parents when they say they want the police (and the Government) to get tougher on cannabis being peddled to their children.
Police Commissioners need to show their worth and make it clear they won’t listen to well-funded lobby groups looking to make a quick buck. Unlike other drugs, cannabis stays in the system for weeks. We need to be testing those caught in a cannabis haze and put users on courses to spell out the harm.
Money from these courses should pay for more bobbies on the beat. We should finally realise the vision of community payback with pot head litter picks sending a clear message – the parents of Britain don’t want your drugs on our streets or in our classrooms.