Cannabis petition forces MPs to consider debating legalisation
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A petition calling for the total legalisation of cannabis in the UK has been signed by more than 125,000 people in just four days.
The response to an appeal hosted on the government�??s official e-petitions website means MPs must now consider debating the issue in parliament. All petitions that reach 100,000 signatures are given such consideration.
The petition�??s success comes after a persistent campaign on social media, with activist-linked Twitter accounts around the world calling on UK-resident marijuana smokers to sign up.
The drive comes in the same week that three police commissioners said that, in light of budget constraints, they would not expect their officers to prioritise the pursuit of people growing cannabis plants for personal use.The petition was posted to the parliament website on Tuesday. By 6.30pm on Saturday it had reached 125,000 signatures, well exceeding the 100,000 needed for the government to consider debating the issue in the Commons.
It calls for parliament to �??make the production, sale and use of cannabis legal�??.
According to its accompanying text: �??Legalising cannabis could bring in £900m in taxes every year, save £400m on policing cannabis and create over 10,000 new jobs.�??
The text describes the drug as �??a substance that is safer than alcohol, and has many uses. It is believed to have been used by humans for over 4,000 years, being made illegal in the UK in 1925�??.
The man who started the petition, James Owen, an economics student at Aberystwyth University, told the Guardian he felt people in the UK were ready for cannabis law reform.With Uruguay legalising, a lot of states in the US legalising, government cuts, people don�??t want to spend the money on policing something they find is harmless,�?? the 25-year-old said.
�??There�??s roughly 3 million adult [cannabis] smokers in the UK and I don�??t think it�??s right for the government to be criminalising such a large section of society.�??
Jason Reed, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (Leap) UK, said the petition by Owen, who is not linked to any drug reform activist groups, had come at the right time.
�??It�??s definitely an issue that people are now taking seriously because before now people saw cannabis reform as something that was for a certain demographic,�?? he said.
�??I think it�??s broken into public consciousness. People realise that their loved ones, they are involved in this, so treating people as criminals is quite a barbaric idea now.�??
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/25/cannabis-legalisation-petition-government-website
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