A recent report backed by London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has called for the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana intended for personal use.
The London Drugs Commission report put forward 42 suggestions for reform. One of its key proposals is to remove natural marijuana from the Misuse of Drugs Act and instead manage it under a different legal framework, the Psychoactive Substances Act.
Khan has voiced strong support for the findings, stating that the current approach is unjustifiable. According to him, the commission has laid out a solid case, rooted in evidence, to reconsider how marijuana possession is treated under the law.
The report touches on various areas, including education, public health, and law enforcement. It criticizes the fact that marijuana possession is still treated as a Class B offense, placing it in the same category as substances like ketamine. While prison sentences for simple possession are rare, the report notes that even the threat of incarceration can have serious consequences for individuals, especially when the offense involves a small, personal amount.
One major concern raised is the use of stop-and-search tactics by police, which the report claims are often applied in a racially biased way when it comes to marijuana. The authors recommend removing marijuana possession as a reason to stop someone, arguing that this would lead to fairer policing.
They also point out that current penalties can be excessive even when the amount of marijuana found exceeds what is typically considered personal use. The report suggests that these legal responses are disproportionate compared to the actual risks cannabis presents.
The report also calls for improvements in several areas: better public health services to deal with marijuana-related problems, more reliable and earlier education about marijuana in schools, fairer access to medical marijuana—including reducing costs—and ongoing review of international developments in marijuana legislation, with a full reassessment in five years.
The goal, according to the commission, is to make enforcement more just, especially for those using marijuana for health reasons without a prescription. Shifting regulation to the PSA would reduce unnecessary criminalization and lower racial bias in law enforcement.
David Raynes, from the National Prevention of Drugs Alliance, opposes the report’s suggestions, arguing that loosening marijuana laws sends the wrong message about its dangers. He criticized the report as a political move by the mayor, who lacks formal power in national drug policy.
However, the views of the mayor on the report can be construed as calling for further discussion on how drug policies have been designed and enforced in the past and what improvements are needed going forward. These discussions could be of interest to the wider marijuana industry around the world, including companies like Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NASDAQ: ACB) (TSX: ACB) that have seen these same debates in other jurisdictions.
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