Should London follow New York and decriminalise cannabis?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/may/31/worried-about-weed-should-london-follow-new-york-and-decriminalise-cannabis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Posted by topotaul
Should London follow New York and decriminalise cannabis?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/may/31/worried-about-weed-should-london-follow-new-york-and-decriminalise-cannabis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Posted by topotaul
26 Comments
New York *stinks* of weed these days. The smell is everywhere. Possession has been mostly decriminalised in the UK, nobody needs to be arrested for it, but don’t do anything that means people will be smoking it more in public.
London can’t do any such thing, it’s a national law
The whole of the uk should fully legalize it. Unless we get the right to grow our own then decriminalization means the criminals maintain control of distribution.
Definitely not, brain damaging drugs should not be decriminalized.
Make it smoke inside specific venues or your own hope not allowed outside can’t be within x meters of a school. Would basically rejuvenate city centers and legitimise weed sales. Try and push vapes and gummies etc to reduce the anti social aspect. Profit off taxation
In a country where things that actively destroy thousands of lives like alcohol and gambling aren’t just legal but completely normalised, its utterly ridiculous that cannabis hasn’t been legalised. Millions of people are already using it. Imagine how much tax revenue that would bring in.
No. There’s only one thing in my life that has gotten cheaper as the years have gone on, and thats weed.
Please fuck off, government tax.
It stinks like a mix of sewage and compost, most Londoners live in flats aka apartments, unlike cigarette smoke it seems denser and seems to linger around longer, when my neighbours smoke it, even with my windows closed it gets in to my flat and I can’t use my living room.
Absolutely not. Cannabis is said to be a ‘safe’ drug no worse than alcohol, but the evidence does not support this view. To wit:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-link-between-cannabis-and-psychosis-in-teens-is-real/
https://irishpsychiatry.ie/blog/college-of-psychiatrists-warns-that-cannabis-is-gravest-threat-to-young-irish-peoples-mental-health-today/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p24yl9wdyo.amp
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/cannabis-marijuana-potent-schizophrenia-b2694726.html
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2781215
I’m hoping they can ban smoking cigarettes, cannabis, and vapes in public areas and indoor areas.
Do that first, it already smells like weed everywhere regardless if it’s legal or not.
Yes and legalise slapping upside they head anyone who cries about the smell.
Is Canadians legalized it and the sky didn’t cave in or anything.
So we are spending millions trying to get people to stopping smoking and absolutely hitting them massively with tax. And then going to look to legalise cannabis which is fantastically carcinogenic. Makes the whole we are doing this to protect your health arrangements look almost like it’s just about tax not health.
I live next door to a stoner and can’t sit out in summer as we get high on second hand weed smoke. Anti social as fuck
The only way this could happen is if the met decided not to pursue cannabis users but they’re never going to willingly do that because it’s like shooting ducks in a barrel to them.
Maybe the UK should follow Canada and just fully legalize it instead?
Multi billion dollar tax industry waiting to be milked by some tory/labour donor. I would agree to legalisation aslong as the taxes where soley for NHS.
London??? At some worse parts, or university student inhabited parts, many streets smell already of weed. In the UK you cannot go out without having to smell weed from someone who decides to smoke one
How is is not legal Today?
I hate the fact that I smell cannabis everywhere in London, I’ll take decriminalisation for crackdowns on public consumption.
No one is going to buy a pint at £7 if we can all smoke weed. Even if they do legalise it they’ll find a way to make it so expensive you’ll be going back to your dealer
I was just in London for the weekend….. the amount of somali men smoking bud openly in Camden was ridiculous. Makes the place look shit. People don’t need another licence to openly take drugs in public.
I say keep it illegal.
Laws against cannabis make no sense – alcohol causes more accidents, crime and costs the NHS a ludicrous amount, if alcohol is allowed, it follows cannabis should also be allowed. Even assuming it was as dangerous as alcohol, again, alcohol is allowed, so…
If they were to decriminalise it it shouldn’t be public smoking. Cigarette smoke isn’t too bad but weed is an obnoxious stench, I can smell it on someone from the other end of a train carriage. I don’t know how they’d enforce that though lol you can’t have people smoking indoors because that’s dangerous. Maybe a designated smoking area? I don’t know I’m not that educated.
The reasons for keeping the status quo are purely ideological at this point.
Yes, but as long as it’s home. I am fed up of smelling cannabis every time I take a walk in NYC.
I’m in favour of legalisation but I don’t want to be out walking and smell it everywhere.