Southport’s former top cop floats legalisation of cannabis
Former Merseyside Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe is calling on the Government to urgently review the legalisation of cannabis which he feels seem overall to be less harmful than alcohol.
Mr Hogan Howe, who was Merseyside’s Chief Constable before he went to fill the same role in the Metropolitan Police, has made his intervention after Canada became first Western nation to fully legalise the drug and Home Secretary Sajid Javid backed the use of medical cannabis. Many Southport residents have questioned whether the Merseyside police should be spending so much effort on busting small cannabis farms in local houses rather than dealing with other more pressing priorities and former Tory leader William Hague has said that present cannabis laws are “inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date”. The Lib Dems have also called for a review of these laws. Vince Cable says it “makes sense to “regulate and control the market” rather than let criminals “control the mixing of substances”.
Lord Hogan-Howe proposes that a panel of experts should examine ‘the accumulating evidence on legalisation… with open minds’ and report back within two years” adding that ” It is hard to justify criminalising a substance less harmful than products we can buy in a shop and at some level has medical benefits.”
The former police chief’s public declaration move follows a visit to Colorado, which in 2014 was one of the first US states to legalise cannabis. Hogan-Howe, formerly Britain’s most senior police officer before retiring last year – talked to doctors, politicians and police, and visited a cannabis club and farm. He says that there was now “general acceptance that reform has worked out”, even from a former opponent of cannabis legalisation such as the mayor of Denver. Taxes on cannabis have funded a new police station in one town and higher pay for police officers.
Lord Hogan-Howe says: “We know prohibition of cannabis has resulted in criminal gangs using violence as they compete for trade and territory. But evidence shows that alcohol causes more violence every night of the week.”
In the USA, some states permit medical use of cannabis only, others include recreational use and legal limits on age, cultivation and possession vary from state to state. Cannabis use remains illegal on a federal level, so universities are unable to get any funding to research the long-term effects of cannabis law reform. In Canada, cannabis legalisation legislation was introduced nationwide only after MPs asked experts to examine all available evidence. Then politicians went to work on legislation focused on limiting harm to users and protecting children. So what would I do if I was Home Secretary? Follow the evidence, as I did for 40 years in the police. Thankfully, we do not need to be pioneers and can learn from experiments elsewhere. In Britain, Lord Hogan Howe is seeking that the government should “follow the evidence”. Hogan Howe says:
“I would set up a body of experts to report within two years. They should be asked to look at the accumulating evidence on legalisation with open minds, and report their conclusions, including whether they feel the evidence suggests cannabis could be safely legalised. We know prohibition of cannabis has resulted in criminal gangs using violence as they compete for trade and territory. But evidence shows that alcohol causes more violence every night of the week. Besides, with medical cannabis arriving in Britain within the next few months, we can expect some to slide into the recreational market, as evidence has shown elsewhere. It may be a poor argument to say we should legalise something because it is as bad as other legal products. But equally it is hard to justify criminalising a substance less harmful than products we can buy in a shop and at some level has medical benefits.”
Meanwhile, Philip May, husband of the Prime Minister, is reported as being likely to make a small fortune out of the medical cannabis production in the UK.
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