UK urged to try 'sensible'. cannabis reforms. 

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Drug policy experts have slammed the UK government's new drug strategy. They claim that it simply repeats a 'tough on drugs' rhetoric amid indications that drug use is increasing, not decreasing.

Dismissing criminal or civil embargoes on cannabis use and possession and establishing cooperative models for distribution are among one drug charity's 14 "principles" on how to guide the UK towards "inevitable" deregulation.

Permitting home growing of cannabis and "automatic expungement" of historic cannabis-related convictions made up part of a recommendation on exploring equity and social justice enterprises within UK cannabis reform.

The report is titled' Regulating Right, Repairing Wrongs' and calls for cannabis "social club" models like those in Spain and Malta, to be integrated into any new regulations.

The proposals drawn up by Release, the national centre of expertise on the subject of drugs and UK drugs laws suggested that tax revenue could be invested in communities that have been "over-policed and over-criminalised". As well as to support harm-reduction interventions and treatment enterprises. 

Dr Laura Garius, Policy lead at "Release", Dr Laura Garius, said countries worldwide are "progressing with drug law reform" while the UK is trailing behind.

She stated: "Despite unprecedented restrictions to movement and border closures due to the pandemic, the drug market remained remarkably stable. Indications are that drug use is increasing, not decreasing".

"The UK's new drug strategy regurgitated a 'tough on drugs rhetoric. Despite the Home Office's research concluding that the estimated £1.6bn spent per year on drug law enforcement does not impact drug use levels. We need a new approach."

Amal Ali, the report's co-author, added: "We know when these principles are not used that people continue to be penalised for cannabis use, and the harms caused by the war on cannabis are not corrected."

Senior policy analyst at "Transform Drug Policy Foundation", Steve Rolles, said: "The legal regulation of cannabis markets is no longer a theoretical discussion. It is being discussed and executed in jurisdictions worldwide".

"The certainty of change creates a responsibility on policymakers to ensure that reforms serve the whole community's needs, not just the profit-seeking priorities of corporate companies".

Cannabis has consistently been the most-used drug in England and Wales since 1996. According to a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Eight per cent of all UK adults aged 16 to 59, which is around 2.6 million, reported using cannabis in the year to March 2020. Data on fluctuations in drug use during the COVID pandemic is yet to be published but will surely make for exciting reading.

£9.4bn is spent every year on illegal drugs. This includes about £2bn on cannabis. More than is spent on powder cocaine (£1.9bn) but less than opiates such as heroin (£4bn). As is reported in the findings of the first of Dame Carol Black's two-part independent review of the drugs trade in 2021.