Cannabis (Legalisation and Regulation) Ten Minute Rule in House of Commons

I remember it being debated in October after the 200,000+ signature petition. Finished with our current Justice Minister saying he didn't believe cannabis was safer than alcohol and openly admitting "he was never going to change his view". Here's a summary of it.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cannabis-debate-live-mps-discuss-6620184

I think we've got a hell of a long way to get yet if as a country we are still trying to pretend cannabis is more harmful than alcohol. I'm sure he has had a pint recently, and he would be admitting to blatant hypocrisy if he actually admitted cannabis was clearly safer.

Really? I must have missed that.

I can understand it being legalised under medical purposes as there is enough scientific evidence to show it can help with Epilepsy however I think it would cause many more issues than it's worth to legalise it completely, they can't really ban alcohol as it's been accepted into society now and the government get a lot of income from it however I think stopping cannabis from completely coming into society is a good thing.

How is that a good thing? It's been well observed that criminalizing drug use doesn't stop anyone using drugs, and in fact legalizing use often makes drug use go down. Drug criminalization throws good people in prison (costing hundreds of thousands of pounds per person), who then come out and commit real crimes (you know, crimes that actually affect other people negatively) because their lives have been ruined by the "justice" system and they have nothing left to lose.

Then all of us non-users pat ourselves on the back for "protecting society", when in reality we're severely punishing people with medical conditions and preventing addicts from getting help, turning them into real criminals.

But as long as we can pretend we're doing something good, that's all that matters, right?

All that aside, it's ridiculous to compare cannabis to alcohol. It's less addictive, it causes far fewer health problems needing treatment (most problems only arise with very frequent use), it doesn't cause the lack of control that leads to violence, and so on. If half the people that binge drink every week started using cannabis instead, the NHS would save billions.

If they are put in prison due to drugs they aren't good people, they have committed a crime, there's no two ways about it. I've had to deal with quite a few people who smoke too much cannabis and have passed out and thrown up, one even cracked their head open on the sink so I don't think it would actually save money . Plus once one drug is legalised then the next thing you know cocaine will be legalised as well, now wouldn't that be fun it would cost the NHS billions

I don't support this- it will lead to more addictions and ultimately more paranoid bagheads

Except it won't, because a study by an international commission of medical experts found that legalising drug use would cause use and addiction to decrease. What do you know that they don't?

If it is easier to get hold of more people will be taking it, the more people who take the drugs on a regular basis the more people who are addicted. Alcohol, fags and Caffeine is enough. The only thing legalising drugs will do is force dealers out of business- which is good, but thats not what we want to do, we want to cut the supply of illegal drugs into the UK

I'm fairly sure the commission considered this and still found that drug use would go down.

In Portugal, all drugs were legalised and drug use went down. Addiction also went down, because people could seek treatment instead of being thrown in prison.

It's incredibly naive to think that we can cut off the supply of illegal drugs. We've been trying for decades, but it's easier than ever. I could buy a kilo of heroin online and have it delivered to my house the next day if I felt so inclined.