Cannabis Usage Should Be Treated Same As Eating Junk Food

Finally! A Drug Policy Commission that thinks straight. In the UK an independent advisory committee has advised the government to focus on damage limitation rather than the banning of drugs. They have compared taking drugs to eating junk food and gambling. As eating junk food can be more damaging than smoking a joint, it is a logical thought of course, but it’s nice to see that some officials think the same. Eating filthy hamburgers is not a crime right? So why would smoking a joint be?

The UK Drug Policy Commission says that not only taking drugs shouldn’t be a crime, but also growing cannabis for personal use as this would probably be the only way to take care of illegal mass production of cannabis which is being done now by criminals. They advised the government to just focus on helping possible addict to use drugs responsibly as taking drugs does not always have to cause problems.

At this moment the UK has a pretty high rate of drug usage; 1 out of every 10 adults has used some kind of illegal substance in the past year, while the global average is about 1 out of 20. Every year more than 200.000 people get arrested for possession of drugs each year and about 40.000 get actually sentenced. The other 160.000 are lucky to get away with mostly a warning for possession of cannabis. Each year about 20 cannabis plantations get discovered on a daily base.

The report by the UK Drug Policy Commission has not been welcomed by everyone obviously as Mary Brett, a representative of Cannabis, Skunk, Sense, an organization that is fighting against the use of cannabis, responded by saying that the commission just “hasn’t thought it out” and “Drugs are illegal because they are dangerous. Cannabis is getting stronger each year”.

A spokesperson of Home Office however, welcomed the report, but stated that the government is not planning to change its strategy on drugs. They are confident that the current tactics are working just fine, as drug usage is at the lowest level since the time they started to keep records.

Hamburger lovers and gambling addicts haven’t reacted yet to the report but you can sure they would not be so happy to hear that their habits might be punished in the same way as drug addicts. Anybody up for a cannaburger?