4 ms·

I wish they'd do this in the UK. At the moment we have a real naked emperor situation where more and more anti-drugs legislation gets passed to appease the ridi

I wish they'd do this in the UK. At the moment we have a real naked emperor situation where more and more anti-drugs legislation gets passed to appease the ridiculous "Vernon Dursley" characters that the focus groups think make up most voters, but in reality pot is common enough to be seen as on par with speeding or pirating MP3s to most well-adjusted people. It's time the legal reality reflected objective reality here. Legalisation is now consistently out-polling prohibition, it's an open secret that prohibition has been a litany of failure by every objective measure, yet for some reason our politicians are like the Japanese holdouts in the 1950s still hopelessly fighting a war that was lost long ago. It's time we told the remaining hysterical moral puritans to get back in their boxes and finally adopt a sensible policy towards the legalisation of cannabis. If pure polling won't make this happen, maybe corporate lobbyists will do some good for society by accident.

bobbleheads 5y ago
I'm not sure that the majority opinion is that it is on tier with mp3 piracy. In cooler towns like London, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield maybe. But my parents in the midlands are strictly anti-drugs and see cannabis as as bad as cocaine, and its the case like that for all their friends and the community around. The culture in the UK is just too different than the culture in the US.
- ry4nolson 5y ago
  That honestly sounds exactly like the culture in the US.
- BoxOfRain 5y ago
  I think there's a lot of geographical variation, I live in an area that would traditionally be considered very Tory-ish but it seems fairly common judging by the smell in public places. I have to admit my experience is probably biased by my social circle, but polling does suggest that staunch prohibitionists aren't nearly as common as our political climate would suggest. This YouGov survey in 2019 has twice as many people supporting than opposing legalisation for example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-legalisation-uk-public-support-yougov-survey-marijuana-rob-wilson-a9004101.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-leg...
- LocalH 5y ago
  It's more granular than that. There are localities where the prevalent opinion is anti-cannabis, and localities where the opposite is true. I am in the state of Tennessee, and I have a family member who believes that a person who buys and consumes cannabis is "subsidizing murder".
gwbas1c 5y ago
In the US, most legalization started with ballot initiatives initiated by activists. California's medical marijuana; and Colorado and Massachusetts 100% legalization, were all direct ballot initiatives. The states control most of the policing anyway, so legalization at the state level basically makes federal drug laws difficult to enforce. Are there popular ballot initiatives in the UK? (Ok, there was Brexit.) But, can you do something in your town like, "The town police shall treat marijuana laws as their lowest priority." or "The town police shall not enforce marijuana laws or cooperate with county police on marijuana enforcement?"

bobbleheads 5y ago

I'm not sure that the majority opinion is that it is on tier with mp3 piracy. In cooler towns like London, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield maybe. But my parents in the midlands are strictly anti-drugs and see cannabis as as bad as cocaine, and its the case like that for all their friends and the community around. The culture in the UK is just too different than the culture in the US.

ry4nolson 5y ago
That honestly sounds exactly like the culture in the US.
BoxOfRain 5y ago
I think there's a lot of geographical variation, I live in an area that would traditionally be considered very Tory-ish but it seems fairly common judging by the smell in public places. I have to admit my experience is probably biased by my social circle, but polling does suggest that staunch prohibitionists aren't nearly as common as our political climate would suggest. This YouGov survey in 2019 has twice as many people supporting than opposing legalisation for example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-legalisation-uk-public-support-yougov-survey-marijuana-rob-wilson-a9004101.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cannabis-leg...
LocalH 5y ago
It's more granular than that. There are localities where the prevalent opinion is anti-cannabis, and localities where the opposite is true. I am in the state of Tennessee, and I have a family member who believes that a person who buys and consumes cannabis is "subsidizing murder".

gwbas1c 5y ago

In the US, most legalization started with ballot initiatives initiated by activists. California's medical marijuana; and Colorado and Massachusetts 100% legalization, were all direct ballot initiatives. The states control most of the policing anyway, so legalization at the state level basically makes federal drug laws difficult to enforce. Are there popular ballot initiatives in the UK? (Ok, there was Brexit.) But, can you do something in your town like, "The town police shall treat marijuana laws as their lowest priority." or "The town police shall not enforce marijuana laws or cooperate with county police on marijuana enforcement?"