Super-drug, fun – or plain dangerous?

On the day that people across the world take to public spaces to smoke cannabis openly, Joanna Whitehead hears the views of two advocates and a drugs harm reduction expert

Each year on 20 April, an unlikely coalition of freespeech advocates, hippies, parents, teachers and more gather to mark the countercultural event that is 420 Day. While the origins of the day are hazy, if broadly agreed to date back to the 70s, its aims are clear: to celebrate marijuana and call for its legalisation.

Across the world, people come together in parks and public areas in an act of public disobedience to light up, with thousands expected to congregate today in London’s Hyde Park.

In April, Germany became the latest country to legalise the drug, following in the footsteps of Canada, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, South Africa, Uruguay and 24 US states. Advocates argue that legalising cannabis could raise muchneeded taxes, take the drug out of the hands of criminal gangs and free up time for overstretched police. Opponents, however, argue that the health impact of cannabis is not taken seriously enough. i sought the views of three people: one medical campaigner, one who favours legalisation for recreational use, and one an opponent to legalisation. outcomes. But it is actually really important that when a drug is bad for your health, we regulate it sensibly.

“It’s important not to moralise about people’s choices. If you stigmatise people and say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t smoke it because it’s wrong,’ that’s a simplistic way of approaching someone’s choices. “We are still arresting people in the UK for possession of small amounts of cannabis. That is outrageous, as not only are they being traumatised by visiting the cells overnight, but it is impacting their employability and restricting their opportunity to travel. It means they can’t visit the US or Australia any more. “By making it a legal product, you take it out of the hands of organised crime groups that are trafficking Eastern Europeans into the country and locking them in warehouses [to prepare the drug] and feeding them through a box. That’s happening in our country right now. Things could be so much better.”