The Guardian reports today that….. William Hague, the former leader of the Conservative party, has urged Theresa May to legalise cannabis, saying the UK’s drug policy is “inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date” and that the “battle is effectively over”.
Lord Hague said issuing orders to the police to stop people smoking cannabis were “about as up to date and relevant as asking the army to recover the empire”.
In an article in the Telegraph on Tuesday, Hague says the prime minister should be bold and lead a major policy change because it is deluded to think cannabis can be “driven off the streets”.
His remarks were swiftly rebutted by the Home Office. It reiterated that the government “has no intention of reviewing the classification of cannabis” and “it will remain a class B drug”.
It stressed that any debate about the medicinal benefits of cannabis “does not extend to any review regarding its classification” and “the illicit possession, cultivation and trafficking of cannabis will remain the same”.
Hague’s comments come amid calls by a growing coalition of MPs, experts, campaigners and families whose children have epilepsy for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use, after the confiscation last week of cannabis oil supplies intended to treat Billy Caldwell, a 12-year-old boy with severe epilepsy.
Read the rest of the report here
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/19/william-hague-theresa-may-legalise-cannabis
Jeremy Hunt the Health minister wants to take a look at medicinal cannabis, the cabinet appear to be split and May won’t budge. Who’d have though this would have been a major political and media story right in the middle of Brexit.
Is it all political power plays or will there be substance ?
The New Statesman also reports
The Billy Caldwell case shows how outdated the UK’s cannabis laws are
The government has as good as admitted that its attitude toward medicinal marijuana is simply wrong. Now it must do something about
