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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Lord Hague says government should 'be bold' and legalise cannabis
Sky News Tuesday 19 Jun 2018 Former Conservative leader William Hague has called upon the government to "be bold" and follow Canada in legalising cannabis for recreational use. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said the eventual approval by the Home Office for medicinal cannabis oil to be used to treat epileptic youngster Billy Caldwell was evidence that a hard-line stance on the drug had become "inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date". The 12-year-old was made to wait almost a week before being allowed to use the drug his mother had brought home from Canada after it was confiscated by border officials at Heathrow Airport. An expert panel of clinicians is to be set up to advise the government on applications to prescribe cannabis-based medications in the wake of the case, but Lord Hague has suggested an even more liberal position be taken. "It's time to acknowledge facts, and to embrace a decisive change that would be economically and socially beneficial, as well as rather liberating for Conservatives in showing sensible new opinions are welcome," he wrote. "Can British Conservatives be as bold as Canadian Liberals? We ought to be." It was revealed back in April that Canada was set to legalise cannabis for recreational use by July next year, making it the first G7 industrialised nation to do so nationwide. In the US, it is only allowed in the states of Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada. Other countries, including Australia, Germany and Norway, only allow it to be used for medicinal purposes, while in many parts of the world it is entirely illegal. In the UK - which is the world's largest exporter of legal cannabis - it is a Class B drug and those found in possession face up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both, with supply and production resulting in up to 14 years in prison and an unlimited fine. Lord Hague said "any war" to prevent use of the drug in the UK had been "irreversibly lost", and that the idea it could be "driven off the streets" was "nothing short of deluded". "When a law has ceased to be credible and worth enforcing to many police as well as the public, respect for the law in general is damaged," he wrote. "We should have laws we believe in and enforce or we should just get rid of them." https://news.sky.com/story/lord-hague-says-government-should-be-bold-and-legalise-cannabis-11409243
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