While the UK government has reiterated several times that it has no intention of changing its cannabis policy, a new public poll shows growing support for making cannabis legal in the UK.
According to the latest YouGov survey Nearly a third (32%) of people agree that the sale and possession of soft drugs, such as cannabis, should no longer be illegal – a significant increase of another 3% since the last poll in February.
YouGov also reports that 22% of people would absolutely support the decriminalization of these drugs. This would mean that possession and use would be considered a minor offence, similar to wrong parking, rather than a criminal offence.
All in all, that's 54% who would support some sort of cannabis policy reform in the UK. That's fantastic!
Also decrease in the number of opponents in the United Kingdom
At the same time, the number of people who oppose legalization or decriminalization has fallen sharply: compared to the 40% of respondents who thought soft drugs should be banned in February, only 36% now support the ongoing criminalization of possession, sale and use of drugs such as cannabis.
Possible decriminalization measures became a major topic of local elections last May, especially in London.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has promised to set up an independent drug commission "to assess the potential health, economic and criminal justice effects" if cannabis were decriminalized in the capital.
In an interview just days before the election, Mayor Khan said he used to oppose the decriminalization of cannabis, but then changed his mind.
He said: “I have seen too many young people criminalized for possessing a little bit of cannabis. I have also seen some of the health effects of cannabis and its impact in relation to the violent crime of the drug industry. I am going to set up a London Drugs Commission after the election, which will have experts from a number of sectors. I want them to go and see what happened abroad where they decriminalized cannabis and then tell me what their recommendations are.”
Although Mr Khan has since won another term in the London Assembly, the government reiterated that the Mayor of London is unable to make changes to drug policy as this is a government matter.
They wrote: “Controlled drugs policy is a matter for the UK government and there are no plans to shift this responsibility.”
The UK Prime Minister has spoken of this many times: illegal drugs are destroying lives and he has absolutely no intention of using cannabis, a harmful substance, to legalize.
Sources including Canex (EN), politics (EN), YouGov (EN)
