Why Labour must free the weed

The legalisation of recreational cannabis three years ago is helping to transform the Big Apple. Greater tax revenue – the equivalent of just under £13m in 2023. New jobs – 63,000 by 2025. Better policing in black communities. Those benefits are not unique – they’ve been seen across the US in states that have been part of the weed revolution.

And it’s only the start. President-elect Donald Trump has signalled that he will not reverse the Drug Enforcement Agency’s plans to downgrade cannabis to a schedule 3 drug, equal to steroids, though he has stopped well short of Kamala Harris, who had said she would explore full legalisation at the federal level.

We’re now in the throes of a grand global experiment. Restrictive drug laws are lifted or about to be changed in Uruguay, Mexico and in five European countries, including the largest EU economy, Germany. Now that it’s no longer theoretical, there’s a growing volume of solid data of the benefits – economic, social justice, criminal justice and public health.

Legalising cannabis would seem like a huge potential win for the UK, particularly in the light of chancellor Rachel Reeves’s insistence that tax revenue to rebuild Britain’s collapsing infrastructure should come from growing the economy.

A new report being prepared for the drug policy foundation Transform estimates a legalised cannabis industry would bring in £1bn a year to the public coffers and create at least 20,000 jobs. CLEAR, the drugs policy reform group, considers that a conservative estimate. Its own study places tax revenue at between £3.5bn and £9.5bn. Either way that’s a substantial amount for public services at a time when the Treasury is strapped for cash.

Yet even though he has insisted “My government’s number one mission is economic growth,” Sir Keir Starmer is firm that there will be no change to the UK’s drug laws. Shortly before the general election, he stated “the approach is settled and not really a subject of great debate even within the Labour Party”.

That one can be filed alongside his equally baffling assertion that the UK would not join the Single Market in his lifetime. Baffling not just because those benefits are so clear, but also because several members of his cabinet are in support of cannabis legalisation, not the least the foreign secretary David Lammy.

And Starmer must know public opinion has been shifting rapidly in favour of legalisation. A YouGov poll last year showed more than half the public is supportive, with just a third opposed, rising to 65% support in London. The opinion polling tracks very closely with the Brexit vote, with Remainers for and Leavers against.

“Reform in North America has helped to move the debate in the UK,” said Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst for the charity Transform, which consults across Europe on drugs laws. “It has stopped being theoretical, stopped being seen as a marginal, fringe issue. Now it’s a credible thing for credible reasons.

“David Lammy clearly understands and gets it, as do most of the senior cabinet. The London mayor Sadiq Khan has read the runes. The mileage of being tough on cannabis is not there any more.

“We are currently preparing a paper on legalisation. Right now the UK is spending £300-400m on enforcing cannabis laws, but legalisation could bring in at least £1bn in tax returns.”

The UK is already the largest exporter of medical cannabis in the world, a hugely profitable market in a booming sector. Sadiq Khan, meanwhile, has set up the London Drugs Commission looking at the effectiveness of the UK’s drugs laws. It reports back shortly.

There is also a significant social justice element that should motivate any Labour government. Before he took over at the Foreign Office, Lammy made a powerful film for the BBC emphasising the toll taken on ethnically diverse communities and pleading for change.

Metropolitan Police figures show that out of 200,000 subject to stop and search, 93% were from lower socio-economic groups. Black people are nine times more likely to be searched, despite similar usage among white people. And in London black and brown people are 3.4 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than a white person.

Lammy wrote: “The law says anyone who smokes cannabis is a criminal, but politicians say it is one rule for us and another for them.”

The illicit cannabis market brings in more than £1bn a year for criminal gangs, according to the National Crime Agency. Peter Reynolds, president of the cannabis reform campaign CLEAR said, “Prohibition is really an abdication of responsibility by government. It allows organised crime and gangsters to run drugs markets which has a massive impact on society through street dealing, violence, intimidation, modern slavery and more.”

The Metropolitan Police is firmly against any change in the law. “Cannabis use in the UK, outside of a very narrow medicinal arena, is both illegal and harmful,” a spokesperson says. “We do not believe cannabis, in any form, is benign. However, we are aware policing’s enforcement of cannabis legislation is seen by some to be unfair in its application. We want to deliver fair, proportionate and effective policing.”

That means pursuing criminals involved in production and distribution while “minimising criminalisation” of users.

Heath experts see benefits too. Children can access cannabis easier than alcohol, according to polling. Those under 18 would be protected by a regulated market. Public health education would also be easier to do than when a drug is illegal.

Like all drugs, including legal ones like alcohol and tobacco, cannabis is not 100% safe. The biggest issue lies with potent strains containing high levels of the psychoactive compound THC which under certain circumstances can cause psychosis in those who are prone to it – people who’ve suffered childhood trauma or have experienced stressful life events, such as migrants.

But these risks are complex, explains Dr Marta Di Forti, professor of drug use, genetics and psychosis at Kings. She’s currently running Cannabis and Me, the largest independent study of its kind examining the different effects people experience when using the drug.

“The risk of developing psychosis is not simply about using cannabis,” she says. “There are three factors: if someone started using the drug at an early age, the frequency of use, on a daily basis, and the potency of the strain.”

Disturbing stories have come out of America where the market has allowed the production of highly potent strains with up to 90% THC. Young people have been turning up at the ER unable to stop vomiting – they call it scromiting, screaming and vomiting. Those highly potent strains have caused them to develop Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome.

Governments in America and Canada have failed to regulate the THC content in their legalised markets, but Canada has had success in preventing sale of cannabis to under 21s.

“If the UK does legalise cannabis then it needs to learn from these other countries and do things differently,” Dr Di Forti says. 

She sees some benefits of legalisation, particularly as cannabis use in the UK is now overtaking tobacco consumption among young people. Her study has shown people in their 50s, even in their 80s, taking up the drug. 

“People need help, not being put in jail,” she says. “My concern now is how we give young people all the information they need on the safety of cannabis. They can name the effects of tobacco, but not cannabis. There should be a public education campaign, which should start now, even before we think about changing the law.”

With the evidence flowing in from all over the world, legalising cannabis seems an open goal for a Labour government determined to raise cash for public services, ensure social justice and improve public health.

Will Starmer change his mind? “In the run-up to the election, Labour were risk-averse on absolutely everything,” Transform’s Steve Rolles says. “The question now is are they going to be bolder on the issues? The war on drugs has been inefficient and expensive and a move towards public health and human rights is the way to go.”

CLEAR’s Peter Reynolds is more robust. “I’m not optimistic things will change,” he says. “The only reason the British government seems to act on anything these days is if they are embarrassed in the media. That’s the only reason prescription cannabis was legalised. The evidence has been there for decades, inquiry after inquiry has recommended it, but it was never acted on. It’s the same with the Post Office scandal, Grenfell, Windrush and the rest.”

Despite Starmer’s intransigence, the pressure on the public purse in a low-growth economy may finally be the one thing that brings the UK into alignment with an increasing number of European nations.

Mark Chadbourn is a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He’s on Bluesky