Is it time to legalise cannabis, asks former Met chief?

Published by The Mail on Sunday (21st October, 2018)

Former Scotland Yard chief Bernard Hogan-Howe has called on the Government to set up an urgent review to examine the legalisation of cannabis.

His controversial intervention comes just days after Canada became the first Western nation to fully legalise the drug.

It will ramp up the debate on drugs in Britain after Home Secretary Sajid Javid backed use of medical cannabis in July and former Tory leader William Hague said cannabis laws were ‘inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date.’

In an exclusive article for The Mail on Sunday today, Lord Hogan-Howe proposes that a panel of experts should examine ‘the accumulating evidence on legalisation… with open minds’ and report back within two years.

‘This could include whether they feel the evidence suggests cannabis should be safely legalised,’ he writes. ‘It is hard to justify criminalising a substance less harmful than products we can buy in a shop and at some level has medical benefits.’

But critics warned against loosening drug laws. ‘Parents will throw their arms up in despair that you would even consider looking at normalising use of cannabis,’ said Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, founder of the charity Drugfam.

She said many of the 1,400 monthly calls to the charity’s helpline were due to concerns over the drug. ‘For those falling foul of cannabis use, it is a lifetime of mental illness,’ she added.

The former police chief’s dramatic move follows a visit to Colorado, one of the first US states to legalise cannabis in 2014, for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary to be screened tomorrow.

Hogan-Howe – Britain’s most senior police officer before retiring last year – talked to doctors, politicians and police, and visited a cannabis club and farm.

He says there was ‘general acceptance reform has worked out’, even from a former opponent such as the mayor of Denver. Taxes on cannabis have funded a new police station in one town and higher pay for officers.

But he also found there was still a black market for under-age users, admits he was dismayed to see a sharp rise in the drug’s potency, and was left worried about young users developing psychosis.

But he also found there was still a black market for under-age users, admits he was dismayed to see a sharp rise in the drug’s potency, and was left worried about young users developing psychosis.

Hogan-Howe writes: ‘We know prohibition of cannabis has resulted in criminal gangs using violence as they compete for trade and territory. But evidence shows that alcohol causes more violence every night of the week.’

Critics of legalisation agree Britain must monitor reforms elsewhere. ‘I don’t think it is a good idea,’ said Tory MP Andrew Bridgen. ‘But let’s see how it goes in Canada. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.’

Categorised in: Drugs, home page, Public policy