Another win for Javid – leadership frontrunner
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In a landmark statement in the Commons today, Sajid Javid said that the use of medicinal cannabis would be reviewed. He also stressed that there would be no parallel debate on wholesale drug reform. “Let me be absolutely clear,” he said, “that this step is in no way a first step to the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use.”
But a former Tory big beast William Hague used a Telegraph op-ed to call for a wider discussion on the effectiveness of criminalization: “Everyone sitting in a Whitehall conference room needs to recognise that, out there, cannabis is ubiquitous … this battle is effectively over.”
There is curious dissonance here – in every case when medicinal cannabis has been legalized by a government, legalization of recreational use tends to follow. There are also several grey areas of cannabis use that are neither strictly recreational, nor strictly within the remit of GPs and medical professionals e.g. the existing degree to which large numbers of people self-medicalize for anxiety disorders and other mental health conditions and pain relief.
Sajid Javid has led on this in recent days. He has shown up Theresa May once again as a politician who, her critics say, lacks basic empathy and leadership skills.
But there is a further dimension to this. Hague highlighted the way in which illegal traffic in drugs gives air to gangs. There is a rhetorical link to be made if a politician is bold enough, between the cruel treatment of Billy Caldwell and the fates of young people caught up in the recent spate of drug-fuelled gun crime in London. Both issues command wide public interest for different reasons; but both issues are inextricably woven into the incoherency of the government approach to drugs.
The question here is – do we want a regulated or an unregulated market for drugs? At the moment, gangs compete against each other, for control of resources and manpower, but they operate with almost complete impunity. There is a good conservative argument for legalization. Step forward Sajid, if you will.
And no, we weren’t having a ‘toke’ on those ‘doobies’ last night, England really did win their World Cup opener, and in some style, albeit over a rather lacklustre Tunisian side. England looked well-organized, purposeful and spirited for the most part. The plan of manager Gareth Southgate worked. We could do with some of that steel in government – Southgate for PM!
Alastair Benn
News and Features editor