The fight for legal cannabis in the United Kingdom

Billy and Charlotte Caldwell, these names should sound very familiar to those engaged in the fight for legalising the use of cannabis in the UK.

Billy Caldwell, from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, suffers from a rare form of epilepsy that causes him to have hundreds of seizures every year. He relies on medicinal cannabis to control them and help with pain relief. After he was prescribed cannabis oil in the US, Billy was able to go months at a time without any epileptic fits.

Following a long and protracted fight with the British Parliament and the Health Service of Northern Ireland, in 2018 Billy won the right to be treated with cannabis oil and the laws regarding the medical uses of cannabis were loosened in the UK.

This, however, was just the beginning, after the law came into effect, less than 100 people have received prescriptions. Even Billy had to fly to England to receive his prescription from a private consultant. Billy’s mother wrote on Facebook, “It’s a huge strain, with the stress of travel, and financial arrangements of having to stay over and have the prescription filled privately”. Despite loosened regulations and doctor approval, the fight for legalising cannabis in the UK continues to be a long and hard road.

More than half of the UK population currently support the legalisation of cannabis for medical and recreational use and 30% of adults aged 16–64 (that’s about 10 million people) have tried cannabis at least once. So why is there still such resistance to change amongst politicians?

They often cite the dangers of addiction and the use of marijuana as a gateway drug despite the 10% addiction rate compared to 32% of tobacco users and 15% of alcohol users. This fearmongering keeps the debate focused on the dangers and negative effects of cannabis.

There are some major steps in the right direction, after a fact-finding trip to Canada by a group of cross-party MPs in 2019, they came back with the belief that the UK will follow Canada’s example and legalise the use of cannabis withing the next decade. In fact, Lib Dem MP, Sir Norman Lamb, was the first serving UK MP to openly consume a cannabis product on camera.

Arfon Jones, the police and crime commissioner for North Wales, called for the sale of cannabis in off-licences. Dame Carole Black, head of the Independent Review of Drugs and Crime, believes that the impact of legalisation and decriminalisation in places like Canada and Portugal should not be ignored. Former Metropolitan Police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, has also called for a change in the legislation, saying that, “We’re lucky — we’re not the pioneers and we can learn from others’ mistakes. The evidence is out there, and it shouldn’t be ignored.”

The battle for legalisation is ongoing and with stronger political support from every political party. As the Conservative MP, Jonathan Djanogly, said on the trip to Canada, “I think we have got a lot to learn before the legalisation of recreational cannabis, which I think will happen at some point,”

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