The Liberal Democrats have announced that they would legalise cannabis if elected in the U.K. general election in June. They would allow a regulated market, in which cannabis could be sold legally to over-18s by licensed shops, and people would be allowed to grow cannabis at home.
The party believes that up to £1 billion could be raised from taxes on cannabis sales, while also reducing costs for the police, prisons and health services; the average cost to the taxpayer per cannabis-related police case is £2,256. Its legalisation could also reduce crime, as criminal gangs would lose income as people would turn to licensed shops to buy cannabis instead.
Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert spoke of the party’s plans, saying: “The prohibitionist approach costs a huge amount of money, means we criminalise a large amount of people, and increases the harm. We spend a lot of money making people’s lives worse. That cannot be correct.”
Currently, anyone in the U.K. found to possess cannabis can be sentenced to up to five years in prison or receive an unlimited fine – or both. Being found supplying or producing the drug can lead to up to 14 years in prison, an unlimited fine or both. While the maximum sentence for being convicted of these crimes is not commonly given, similarly to the U.S., drug laws are enforced more frequently and harshly against black people and other minorities in the U.K.
Unlike the U.S. though, there seems to be much less conversation among the public in the U.K. about the systematic racism that exists in the policing of the country.
Over half of stop and searches carried out by police are in pursuit of drugs. A study found that black people were stopped and searched for drugs at 6.3 times the rate of white people, while Asian people were stopped and searched at 2.5 times the rate of white people. This is despite the fact that both black people and Asian people are less likely to use drugs than white people.
Additionally, black people and Asian people are arrested for drug offences at six times and twice the rate as white people respectively; 78% of black people found possessing drugs are charged, compared to 44% of white people, and only 22% of black people receive cautions instead, whereas 56% of white people do. Black people are also jailed at six times the rate of white people for drug possession.
The disparity between the treatment of black people and minorities compared to white people in regards to drug offences is astoundingly obvious. If cannabis were to be legalised, this would hopefully eliminate one of the causes of the disproportionate criminalisation of minorities and it would at least reduce the amount of unnecessary stop and searching of innocent people in minorities due to racial discrimination. Therefore, while the Liberal Democrats plans for the legalisation of cannabis are focussed mainly on the money costs, it could in fact remove an outlet for racism.
