Marijuana reform comes with a whole array of mindsets across the world, some much sterner than the US.
For instance, in the UK marijuana has had a pretty rocky road. In 2001, the country brought marijuana down from a Class B substance to Class C. This essentially decriminalized the drug. It led to a refocusing of the police force and much less arrests.
But then in 2007, a new party came into power and rescheduled it into Class B. It has stayed there since.
As of 2021, not much pressure has been given on either side of the political spectrum to make big changes. When it comes to national politics, the topic rarely comes up, even within the opposition party’s more progressive stance to most issues.
However, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has campaigned for re-election with promises to review the law and, at least, reschedule marijuana within the city. On the contrary, the leader of the Labour Party (Sadiq Khan’s own party) isn’t as keen, unfortunately.
Since interest in legalization has waned, there is a separate option called “Backdoor decriminalization” in which police forces themselves do not prosecute as intensely as in the past. This has softly been enacted across the country, with offenses for cannabis possession going from 160,733 in 2010/11 to 110,085 in 2019/20.
All this being said, Boris Johnson has once shown support for ending the criminalization of marijuana in the way past, and only 32% of citizens oppose legal cannabis. So while UK is certainly behind the fast track of the US, it seems it’s only a matter of time until they get there.
Read the original story at Leafie.
