Tag: United Kingdom

In an increasingly bitter and close race, Tory rival for the top political job, Rishi Sunak has criticized Liz Truss for her flip-flop on cannabis reform

The current political battle in the UK to replace Boris Johnson has gotten increasingly nasty if not out of touch with the issues that most people are now facing. The top two rivals for the Prime Minister’s office, have been slugging away at each other’s policies for weeks now.

Given this, it was inevitable that the issue of cannabis reform would surface, in some form.

Now Rishi Sunak, dubbed “Dishy Rishi” by his detractors, who would become not only the first non-white Prime Minister but the first practicing Hindu to hold the office, has gone there. Specifically, he has attacked Liz Truss, his opponent, for once supporting cannabis reform – when she was a student at Oxford and the one-time president of the Oxford Liberal Democrats.

Interestingly, Sunak, who also spent time in California while attending Stanford University to obtain an MBA degree, is not taking a stand on cannabis reform, even of the medical kind. His criticism is that Truss is a politician who will flip flop to gain political advantage and holds no fixed beliefs. She currently opposes cannabis reform as a member of the Tory party.

It is the kind of campaign not seen (yet) in the United States or Germany – two countries where the issue of federal cannabis reform is now looming. It is also a sign of how far even medical cannabis reform still has to go in the UK – forget full legalization.

Where Cannabis Reform Now Stands in Britain

The UK is now suffering from high inflation, post-Brexit woes, and a political discussion that has been warped beyond recognition because of the same. As literally millions of Britons are suffering from energy costs that have increased dramatically this year plus food and medicine shortages, the Tory leadership battle has focussed on esoteric issues that have little to do with the major problems now faced by the majority of the country.

In the meantime, the government is at a literal standstill under the lame duck tenancy of Boris Johnson, who was forced out by members of his own party after one too many scandals earlier this summer.

The issue of cannabis reform is, as a result, unlikely to become a political force on a national level in this kind of environment. Indeed, it has stagnated all over the country, even in places like the Channel Islands where local support had gelled for proceeding.

It is unlikely that the UK will be able to hold out forever, no matter who wins the current leadership contest. Indeed, it will be a potent political issue in the next national election, due to be held in the next several years.

Until then, however, look for the same old, tired excuses for failing to enact more comprehensive policies from the Tory party as cannabis patients continue to suffer and people are convicted of criminal charges even for small amounts of cannabis. There are currently an estimated 17,000 “legal” cannabis patients in Britain.

A Report Launched by UK Minister for Science, Research and Innovation criticizes a lack of coordinated policy on “cannabinoid innovation”

The UK government is criticizing itself in a new report to be launched by the Minister of Science, Research, and Innovation – namely calling on the government to turbocharge cannabis innovation rather than continuing to take a disinterested approach to the sector.

It also explicitly criticizes the approach so far.

According to the report, “It is not sustainable or acceptable for the [UK] Government to continue to take an uncoordinated, disinterested or laissez-faire attitude to the sector as a whole, as it has done since the cannabis sector’s 2018 inception.”

The 24-page document quotes leading industry players, academics, patients, consumers, and investors.

Beyond being critical of the progress so far, however, the report also lists twenty ways in which the UK can create a best-in-class cannabis sector.

Commissioned by the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis and the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry, the report was authored by Professor Christopher Hodges, a well-known regulatory expert, and thought leaders. The work will also be launched with a speech from George Freeman, a member of parliament and the minister of the agency which is ultimately responsible for the report.

It is, as a result, the first-ever ministerial address about the cannabis sector in the UK.

Evolving By Accident

According to the report, the market has “evolved by accident, without coordinated government action or a coherent strategy to steward it to maturity.” They further offer some interesting findings including that 1 in 7 Britons use cannabis for medical if not health reasons and that 64% of the population believes that scientific study of cannabinoids should be supported by the government.

A New Regulatory Schemata

Arguing that the framework established by the report would create a global advantage for post-Brexit Britain, Professor Hodges, an Emeritus Professor of Justice Systems at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford, also calls for specific changes that could be made quickly and easily.

These include allowing GPs to prescribe medical cannabis rather than specialists, modernizing the Proceeds of Crime Act, creating a national patient registry, and updating the rules about farming hemp. The report also calls for the creation of a “stewarding authority” to implement the suggested reforms as well as govern and guide the sector forward.

Through these suggestions, the report authors hope to create jobs, attract more investment, and secure both political support and public recognition.