Skip to main content

Britains Conservative Leader Hires Marijuana Reform Advocates For Key Posts

Two top aides who will be whispering in the ear of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson are outspoken advocates for marijuana law reform.

Johnson, who became PM last week, recently hired on policy advisor Blair Gibbs, who previously served as the policy lead at the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis, which represents marijuana industry stakeholders and supports legalizing medical cannabis.

As BuzzFeed News reported, Gibbs has repeatedly voiced support for broader legalization, condemned prohibition and said that Canada’s legal marijuana laws represents “a rare example of bold policy and good government.”

Occupying another top position, Danny Kruger, Johnson’s political secretary, is also an opponent of prohibition who said we “do not need to ban everything bad” and that youth consumption could be deterred through cultural disapproval rather than punitive anti-drug laws.

The staffing decisions seem to bode well for reform under the Conservative leader’s new administration.

“It’s a welcome sign of the shift in popular thinking in the UK that the PM is comfortable bringing such a prominent cannabis reform advocate into his team,” Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst for the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, told Marijuana Moment, referring to Gibbs’s hiring.

Though Johnson himself has not indicated he’s supportive of legalization, despite describing his past experience with cannabis as “jolly nice,” there’s a growing conservative embrace of marijuana that could spark change.

Conservative MP Jonathan Djanogly, who was part of a cross-party group of lawmakers that recently visited Canada to learn about the country’s legal cannabis market, said after the tour that “we have got a lot to learn before the legalisation of recreational cannabis, which I think will happen at some point” in the UK in the next 10 to 15 years.

But while right-leaning voices in the UK are starting to break through in favor of reform, owing in part to support from the advocacy group VolteFace and the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group, divisions are developing among reformers as social justice-minded activists push for an equity-oriented legalization plan.

“One aspect which clearly concerns grassroots and longtime campaigners alike—as well as organisations with a social justice remit—is how the reform model could look,” Jason Reed, executive director of the pro-legalization Law Enforcement Action Partnership UK, told Marijuana Moment. “This is now the conversation; the case for social equity models, such as Massachusetts, is arguably the next big topic for discussion.”

“It’s now more likely we’ll be speaking about how cannabis will be reformed in the UK as opposed to when.”

Similar conversations are being had in the U.S. government as well, where there’s growing bipartisan sentiment around reforming federal marijuana laws but differing views on the best approach to accomplish that.

According to a recent YouGov poll, 53 percent of UK adults support legalizing cannabis. Over in the U.S., that figure was 10 percentage points higher in a survey released earlier this month.

Reed said that between the cannabis-friendly appointments of Johnson and the “cross-party consensus” around reform, “it’s certainly conceivable the UK will see cannabis laws reformed in the near future.”

Why Legalization Activists Are Pretending To Snort Massive Lines of Fake Cocaine

Original Article Source: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/britains-conservative-leader-hires-marijuana-reform-advocates-for-key-posts/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Adds More Exceptions To Pre-Employment Marijuana Testing Ban

An ambitious campaign to decriminalize psychedelics in Washington, D.C., is one step closer to placing their measure on the November ballot with the formal submission of tens of thousands of voter signatures. Organizers have been scrambling for weeks to collect enough signatures from D.C. voters by Monday’s deadline amid historically difficult circumstances: a global pandemic, months of stay-at-home orders and protests over racism and police violence that filled the streets of the nation’s capital. But with the help of innovative signature-gathering techniques and allies flown in from across the country, advocates said they had successfully submitted upwards of 35,000 signatures—more than enough to qualify the initiative. If approved by voters, Initiative 81 would make enforcement of laws against plant- and fungus-based psychedelics among the “lowest law enforcement priorities” for the Metropolitan Police Department. It would not, however, legalize or reduce penalties for the subs
Post a Comment
Read more

Charlotte Figi The Girl Who Inspired A CBD Movement Has Died At Age 13

Charlotte had recently been hospitalized due to pneumonia, breathing problems and seizures. She was treated as a likely case of Covid-19, her mother, Paige Figi, said Wednesday, although she tested negative for the virus. “Charlotte is no longer suffering. She is seizure-free forever,” a family friend wrote on Paige Figi’s Facebook page, announcing Charlotte’s death. “Thank you so much for all of your love.” Charlotte became a symbol of the possibilities of CBD after CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta told her story in the documentary “Weed.” In the film, Charlotte was shown to be a playful child who was overcome by horrific seizures, which were quelled with Charlotte’s Web, a marijuana strain named in her honor. Charlotte had Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy which was not controlled by medication. The Stanley brothers, marijuana growers in Colorado, were crossbreeding a strain of marijuana high in CBD and low in THC, its psychoactive ingredient. After Charlo
Post a Comment
Read more

Virginia CBD Program Criticized As Multistate Medical Cannabis Operators Gain Edge

Seven companies are challenging a CBD licensing process in Virginia that resulted in multistate medical marijuana operators getting a majority of available licenses. The appeals called the process “wildly prejudicial.” Out of 51 applicants for five vertically integrated CBD and THC-A licenses, multistate operators received three, a situation that spurred the appeals, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Applicants filing the appeals complained the closed-meeting review process lacked fairness and transparency. One consultant to an applicant said the selections felt “predetermined.” The Virginia Board of Pharmacy reportedly sent information to the applicants in December explaining its selections, but some applicants weren’t satisfied. A board spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Pilot that the board “does not comment on pending litigation.” The five winning applicants , called “pharmaceutical processors,” have a year from winning the licenses to become operational. The multistate
Post a Comment
Read more