We call upon the new Prime Minister Liz Truss and the new Home Secretary Suella Braverman to decriminalise cannabis in the UK.

Since 2000, many governments in the world have decriminalised or legalised cannabis, with no evidence of increased use or harmful effects to the population, and confirmed positive health and social outcomes.

Cannabis has a long history of use as a medicine. Medical cannabis is approved for use in the UK although access is currently limited to the private market. Yet so called “recreational” use of cannabis remains illegal.

The criminalisation of cannabis has not been effective in curbing use, nor does it support those who use the substance to do so as safely as possible. Instead, criminalisation drives people into the criminal justice system and exacerbates the stigma and discrimination of people who use cannabis.

The criminalisation of cannabis possession — and the inequitable application of drug law enforcement more broadly — remains a key driver of racial disparity in the criminal justice system, from stop and search right through to prosecution and sentencing.

The UK Government must acknowledge the failure and damage of cannabis prohibition and must adopt mass automatic expungement processes for offences which are cannabis-related. 

Accumulated tax revenue from the new legal cannabis industry should be invested in communities that have been over-policed and over-criminalised, and should support drug harm-reduction interventions and wider drug treatment initiatives.

Any new regulatory system should allow for noncommercial domestic cultivation. Policy should include individuals’ right to grow cannabis at home for personal use.

The National Hemp Service is launching a people-powered campaign to demand the government does the right thing and decriminalises cannabis now.