@m4mmuk
m4mmuk@gmail.com
Marijuana for the Mayorship?
The UK Cannabis community harbours a deep mistrust of any politician talking about Cannabis policy reform - particularly during election hour.
Before getting into it, I need to be clear; this article is in no way meant to sway your vote in either direction for the current Mayor of London - Sadiq Khan - to be reelected for a second term. I'm just looking out for the community by stating an incredibly obvious concern about this sudden addition to his campaign - which just feels like an empty gesture, or a ways to procrastinate on this matter at the very best.
It feels like global progressive movements have armed everyone with buzzwords that excite and get people talking, but have little to no intention of accommodating any actual progress. Of course the biggest beneficiaries of said 'buzzwords' are politicians, who carelessly lob them about hoping to knock some unsuspecting voter into a dizzy frenzy of support.
Today's buzzword is 'Decriminalisation' - not to (ever) be confused with 'Legalisation' - which is kind of my first problem here. For many people in the UK these terms are used interchangeably, which is harmless during a general chat, but problematic when dealing with an election. When news hit on the 5th of April that Sadiq Khan pledged to establish a London drugs commission to launch a review into the benefits of decriminalisation - culture and meme pages shared posts containing four words that can only coexist in a title for the purpose of clickbait; 'Khan - Cannabis - Legal - London'.
The problem here is that a large number of people following these pages come from Black, Brown and working class communities - who tend to be the demographic most likely to vote for Sadiq - and who have experienced the worst of what Cannabis prohibition has to offer. So packaging information in a way that truthfully reflects the reality of what is being proposed here is not only integral, but just respectful to the community.
While a quick scan of the comments section indicates a great deal of scepticism from the aforementioned audience, it still rings true that many people consume social media with a superficial or apathetic approach to doing further research - often treating a single headline as literal news - as is also evident from the dreaded comments sections.
At the end of the day - headlines be click-baiting - and it should be expected from pages focused on views and engagement to forgo delivering reliable news for that exact reason. What this has proven however, is that there is a desperate need for the communities most affected by Cannabis prohibition to have a reliable, relatable and well-researched content source for all things Cannabis.
So what is Khan actually proposing, and what can he actually do?
This addition to Khan's manifesto does not come with the prospect of Cannabis being legalised in London...
Firstly, the Mayor of London does not have the power to make changes to policy, particularly ones that have been so contentiously and stubbornly debated for over 3 decades. However, as chief of the London Metropolitan Police, he is able to instruct the force's strategic priorities for how they approach tackling crime in the capital. This means that we could see a sort of de facto policy of toleration implemented in their strategy, which would mean that London Met Police would not be apprehending or prosecuting for Cannabis possession. This approach of toleration has already been happening up north in Durham for almost 6 years now.
Secondly, before all of this could even happen, Mayor Khan will be launching a review to "examine evidence on the harms of drugs, support services and prevention" and "the effectiveness of current laws as well as tackling the root causes of crime" specifically with regard to Cannabis. To be honest there is nothing remotely exciting about this, since data has been readily available from nations across the world that have already decriminalised Cannabis for a substantial amount of time. So Khan's intention to collect this information and compile a new report is something he could have done at any point in the past 5 years - so why now?
Well Mayor Khan says,
“It’s time for fresh ideas about how to reduce the harms drugs and drug-related crimes cause to individuals, families and communities. The illegal drugs trade causes huge damage to our society - driving serious and violent crime, damaging people’s health and criminalising too many young people."
Hmm, true dat.
But just to cut a long story short; the data will show that an absolute end to prohibition with an intelligent and inclusive Cannabis policy has been the best option for a long time. But unfortunately, neither of the UK's leading parties have shared any intention of legalisation, decriminalisation - or any type of Cannabis deregulation for that matter. We did of course see the legalisation of Marijuana based medication in November 2018 - but only if you have heaps of disposable income to spend on an obscenely high priced dosage.
In fact, in order for Khan to come out in support for Cannabis deregulation, he would be doing so against his own party and Labour leader Keir Starmer - as if disunity within Labour was not already a big enough issue. So again all of this feels too insincere to be considered as a move in the right direction. Not least of all because of UK politicians and media using this particular topic as a point of leverage before they quickly sweep it under the rug again.
And yet, a glimmer of hope...
With all of that being said, there is still something positive to be taken from Khan's well-timed proposal for review.
This is of course the opportunity to galvanise support by educating people and communities on what a legal Cannabis future could look like in the UK - but more so - what the communities most affected by prohibition should be seeking out of reform.
A mixture of current scenarios from Brexit, to the pandemic, to global social change, could potentially work in favour of legalisation - as well as the fact that citing polls show over half of the UK and two-thirds of London support an end to prohibition. However, for this to translate into actual policy reform would require an attitude shift in all parts of UK government towards Cannabis. So one can only hope that Khan's review is the first step in this process - because honestly at this point it's a better shot than we had yesterday.
And who knows, in 4 years we might see Sadiq Khan running for Labour leader after a final term as London Mayor, a solid review on decriminalisation, with two-thirds of the capital and over half of the nation backing this issue - jam your hype, I'm just speculating!
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