Bone, Melissa and Potter, Gary Richard and Klein, Axel (2018) Introduction : cultivation, medication, activism and cannabis policy. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 18 (2). pp. 73-79. ISSN 1745-9265
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Abstract
On Friday 23rd February 2018 the medical cannabis bill introduced by UK Member of Parliament Paul Flynn went in for its second reading in the House of Commons. To the disappointment of several hundred activists assembled on the patch of green on Parliament Square in the freezing cold it never got to a vote, as the discussion on the preceding motion, Overseas Electors, dragged on. The event captured many of the issues transforming the field of drug policy, at least as related to cannabis. A large number of demonstrators were middle aged, a few had rolled up in wheel chairs, and the police were keeping a respectful distance. Cannabis use in the UK, as in many other countries, has come of age, its respectability confirmed by the rising flow of scientific evidence of its therapeutic benefits. Politics, however, is out of step with scientific advances and changing social mores, held back by the counter weight of vested interests, the arrogance of political elites, and sheer inertia. Cannabis, whether for medical or non-medical use, remains illegal in the UK3, and most other countries, even as a growing number of jurisdictions change policy.