A town in the north of England, Rotherham, is facing countless power cuts due to a rise in cannabis farms. According to local MP Sarah Champion, some locals experience power shortages nearly “four-times-a-day”.
UK police have been quick to respond as they shut down 61 cannabis farms and seized nearly 7000 plants estimated to have a street value of £6.8 million. The increase in UK cannabis farms comes as no surprise as reports suggest that there are over 4.7 million people in the UK that consume cannabis, creating a blackmarket economy worth around £6 billion.
As the public health benefits become increasingly evident, the arguments to keep cannabis criminalised become weaker.
Since November 2018, specialist doctors have been permitted to legally issue prescriptions for cannabis-based medicines in the UK.
However, smoking cannabis still remains illegal as patients are advised to use a dry herb vapourisers for medical consumption.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is a strong advocate of cannabis reform in the UK, as he made cannabis decriminalisation part of his official election campaign last year.
According to a leaked report last month, it showed that plans for a pilot scheme to decriminalise cannabis and other class B drugs have been initiated in London.
The first two countries to legalise cannabis for adults were Uruguay and Canada in 2013 and 2018.
Now Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is also set for huge cannabis reforms which could benefit the German economy by around £4bn per year.
With more and more countries capitalising on the economic benefits and tax revenue, the commercial and political pressure to legalise cannabis on the UK Government continues.
Sri Lanka also seems to have avid supporters of cannabis reform as Parliamentarian Diana Gamage has been regularly endorsing the legalisation of cannabis in Sri Lanka.
Furthermore, State Minister of Indigenous Medicine, Rural and Ayurveda Hospital Development and Community Health Sisira Jayakody proposes a ruling to export cannabis be introduced in order to earn foreign exchange and boost Sri Lanka’s economy.