After the difficulties that the last year and more has seen, the one thing that everyone wants is to see a return to normality. Businesses suffered badly last year, and some are still struggling financially today. Many famous high-street names have gone for good, and it is not clear if everyone else is out of the woods just yet.
One effect of businesses performing poorly due to the pandemic is that unemployment rose. Fortunately in Southport, there are some great plans for the future, with the town centre and sea-front receiving funds for regeneration. This will help to create jobs and increase the town’s revenue.
But, could more be done? At least one Southport MP was calling for medical marijuana to be legalised all the way back in 2016. This has now been achieved, but the country is still lagging behind the states, and other regions when it comes to decriminalising cannabis.
What could legalising marijuana mean for Southport and other areas of the country?
What is the current situation regarding the cannabis laws in the UK?
Three years ago, the government announced that from Nov 1st, 2018, prescription marijuana would be legal. To date, there are only two medical conditions that are allowed to be treated with marijuana; childhood epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.
As far as recreational use is concerned, cannabis is still listed as a Class B drug. This means that unlike in Canada, some states of the US, and several other countries, it is illegal to possess or distribute cannabis in the UK.
Someone in Canada can simply go online here and make a perfectly legal purchase from a range of cannabis products. However, an individual in the UK trying the same thing would be breaking the law.
How are the current UK laws having a negative effect?
Anyone wishing to smoke or consume cannabis in any form will have to break the law and risk either a warning or a fine. Anyone caught growing and cultivating marijuana can potentially receive far harsher sentences, including prison time.
Due to the illegality of cannabis, the only way to purchase it is from dealers. This means that the product sold can potentially be of poor quality, and underweight. It also means that police time has to be used to target dealers and recreational users.
At the end of last year, a cannabis farm was raided in Birkdale. While the police can be applauded for doing their job well, if cannabis was legalised, they could have spent the time and manpower on other areas.
While Southport is generally a very safe place to be, the crime rate rose 8% last year for violent offences compared to 2019. It might be safe to assume that most people would prefer the police to concentrate on these areas rather than fining someone for possessing some cannabis.
How could legalising marijuana affect the local and wider area?
For an idea of what could be achieved from legalising marijuana, you only have to look across the pond. If you look at the tax revenue from the states that have already legalised cannabis in the US, you can see the financial benefits straight away.
Some states have taken in hundreds of millions of dollars, while California raised more than $1 billion in taxes from cannabis in 2020. If something similar was done here, the taxes could be put towards improving the NHS, housing, and the educational system.
Police budgets could be diverted to other areas, and more serious crimes could be investigated if the laws were relaxed. And, jobs would also be created.
If there were legal dispensaries in Southport and the UK, they would need staff to operate them. Websites would need to be created and managed, and cannabis itself would need to be farmed.
What other benefits would there be from legalising cannabis?
Anyone wanting to use marijuana for medical reasons that are not yet accepted would no longer be breaking the law. Similarly, any recreational user, or someone who wanted to grow marijuana, would no longer be a criminal.
This would also mean, no one would have to buy on the streets. Thus avoiding a potentially dangerous or unsafe situation. The crime rate in the UK would instantly drop as far as cannabis arrests were concerned.
Fortunately in Southport, there are some great plans for the future, with the town centre and sea-front receiving funds for regeneration. This will help to create jobs and increase the town’s revenue, as well as potentially boosting the market for discrete smoking devices
Summary
At the moment, the subject of legalising cannabis is divisive. Members of Parliament are still going back and forth over whether to follow the US’s example and to decriminalise cannabis. If it was done, many jobs could be created, and unsafe buying situations could be removed.
An individual could happily go online to buy pre-rolls, safe in the knowledge that the quality would be high, they are buying cannabis legally, and their taxes would be going to (hopefully) some good causes.
Right now, the NHS is struggling and is no longer the best healthcare system in the world. Legalising and taxing marijuana could help rejuvenate the NHS again, along with schools, and other areas.
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