Legalisation of Cannabis in the UK: Pros and Cons

This essay provides an insight into whether legalisation of cannabis in UK will be more beneficial for the society in comparison to the prohibition. It discusses the pros and cons of legalisation and highlights the benefits it will add for the society. The essay also sheds light on the failure of the UK’s drug strategy and the need for a new strategy that actually works for UK.

Social Issues in Context

TABLE OF CONTENTS
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................6

Title: The legalisation of cannabis in the UK would be more beneficial for society than
prohibition. To what extent do you agree?
There has been an increase in the debate pertaining to whether cannabis should be
legalised in UK or not. There are various pros and cons in respect to the benefits it will add
for the society or the negativity. This essay provides an insight into whether legalisation of
cannabis in UK will be more beneficial for the society in comparison to the prohibition.
Based upon the several reports, it has been stated that cannabis should be legalised
in the UK which is backed up by the different cross-party MPs. In the current situation, the
cannabis policy of the Britain which is a messy patchwork of legislation which is being
enforced by the regional police. The government of the UK must recognise the fact that the
legalisation of Class B drug is the only possible solution pertaining to the various serious
problems of crime and the increasing addiction in UK (Gornall, 2020). In addition to this, it is
clearly evident that the UK’s drug strategy has failed which is required to be recognised and
accepted by the politicians and the public. The drug strategy has failed in its main purpose of
preventing people from its usage or manufacturing it and also putting a stop to the crime
associated with it like corruption and deaths which is taking place on a large scale all across
the globe.
As per the various view points Cannabis legislation pertaining to the legalization
helps in making sure that the drug meets acceptable standards, eliminate groups of thugs from
the condition, raise income for the Treasury and ensure general wellbeing. As per the reports,
the legal cannabis market would be around £6.8 billion annually which will result into
providing £1 billion annually to the treasury. In addition to this it will also help in decreasing
the criminal justice cost with approximately 1363 inmates who are presently in the England
and Wales prison in association with the cannabis linked offences which results into costing
the tax payer of £50 million a year (Kleiman and Ziskind, 2019). Apart from this, there is
another benefit of making cannabis legalised s that it would result into allowing long term
studies related to the drug health effects which is presently not possible. For example,
California is among the most recent US states to legitimize the medication. The Netherlands
has as a result decriminalized it since 1976, and Portugal since 2001. Germany is near the
precarious edge of completely legitimizing cannabis for therapeutic purposes and Canada is
preparing for full authorization and guideline, according to the report, which was ordered
with Volteface, a policy innovation centre, that investigates options in contrast to current
public approaches identifying with drugs.

English legislators need to make them fully aware of what's going on in the rest of
the world. Cannabis preclusion is being cleared away on a tide of prevalent attitude and
supplanted with capable legitimate guideline.it is the high time for the ministers to start
writing the new legal market which involves age limits and health warnings which will help
in exercising control from the criminal gangs. It is important to create or overcome the
prejudice and the negative language which is revolving around the cannabis pertaining to the
creation of the new strategy that actually works for UK. This is the only way through which
the country can determine the actual consequences or the potential benefits of the legalisation
of drugs on the overall cost budget of the economy along with the social well-being of the
society and the people at large.
The World Health Organization concurs that forbiddance has prompted strategies
and authorization rehearses that settle in segregation and engender common freedoms
infringement, add to brutality related criminal networks and deny individuals admittance to
the intervention they need to work on their wellbeing. In addition to this, the British Medical
journal has also provided support for the legalisation while stating that the imposing
restriction or ban on the drug production, supply and the all the other certain drugs apart from
the non-medical purposes has resulted in causing massive harm (Wright, 2019). The way in
which Canada has become the 1st G7 nation to legalise cannabis for the purpose of the
recreational usage and the more and more bigger US states are planning to do the same. UK
is required to re-examine its own medications strategies to ensure this developing business
sector is in the possession of genuine, controlled organizations – not groups of thugs. The war
on the drugs in respect to UK is an abject failure which has resulted into continuous
criminalisation of the Cannabis user is completely and entirely counterproductive.
Along with this, it is important to understand that around the globe the attitude of the
government towards the usage of cannabis is shifting. In the year 2012, the Uruguay
announced that it would become the 1st country to in the world to legalise the recreational
cannabis usage. In addition to this, the aim of the larger part was to replace the links among
the organised crimes and the cannabis trade with the highly and more accountable state
regulations (Schlag, 2020). When the Barack Obama was the president, the government
stepped backed pertaining to the enforcement of the federal laws and provides a green signal
to the various other alternatives to be explored. 8 additional states and Washington DC have
since upheld the sanctioning of sporting cannabis and punishments are mellowing at other
places. The utilization of the drug for clinical reasons is permitted in 33 of the 50 states. In
UK, doctors have been permitted for prescribing cannabis products while in South Korea

which has also legalised strictly controlled medical use regardless of arraigning occupants for
sporting utilize abroad, also in the South Africa's most elevated court authorized the
utilization of cannabis by grown-ups in private places, Lesotho turned into the principal
African nation to authorize the development of weed for therapeutic purposes, Lebanon is
thinking about the authorization of cannabis creation for clinical purposes, to help its
economy etc. Thus, these are certain practices or the opinions of the various nations or the
economies in respect to legalising the cannabis. There is no point of denying that cannabis
legislation will result into a lucrative industry as there is a vast eager user waiting for the
legal cannabis products in United Kingdom (Kilmer, 2017). In UK, the black market of
cannabis is worth £2.6 billion yearly. On making it legalized, UK could earn plenty of money
which will result into increasing tourism. For instance, in the year 2015, the Cannabis
legislation in Colorado resulted into making $2.6bn off of tourists attracted by providing legal
cannabis. Also, Amsterdam which grabs tourist across the globe because of the fact that it is
able to provide marijuana legally and there are countless cafes which are providing cannabis
to anyone above 1. This has consequently led to decreasing the crime rate in contrast to UK.
The UK government right now spends over £1bn on assets and administrations gave
to the cannabis business, including holding onto illicit cannabis and indicting those engaged
with weed ranches. An enormous sum is allotted to treating cannabis clients with medical
issues, which generally branches from inferior quality weed that is intensely accessible on the
UK roads. Changing the UK cannabis laws could mean an enormous measure of investment
funds openly benefits savings in public places, including the NHS and other legal
organizations. It could likewise acquire the depository £1.4bn in additional expenses, enough
to pay the compensations of midwives and emergency staff across England. Thus, cannabis
should be legalised in UK.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gornall, J., 2020. Big cannabis in the UK: is industry support for wider patient access
motivated by promises of recreational market worth billions?. Bmj. 368.
Kilmer, B., 2017. Recreational cannabis—minimizing the health risks from legalization. N
Engl J Med. 376(8). pp.705-707.
Kleiman, M. A. and Ziskind, J., 2019. Lawful access to cannabis: gains, losses and design
criteria. Journal of Illicit Economies and Development. 1(3). pp.272-278.
Schlag, A. K., 2020. An evaluation of regulatory regimes of medical cannabis: What lessons
can be learned for the UK?. Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids. 3(1). pp.27-34.
Wright, D. W. M., 2019. Cannabis and tourism: a future UK industry perspective. Journal of
Tourism Futures.