“The war on drugs didn’t stop anyone using cannabis” was the floor’s most-respected Yes case, framing prohibition as a policy that had displaced rather than prevented use. The winning side argued that control, safer products and the removal of criminal profits mattered more than the promise that prohibition could hold the line.
That case was usually practical rather than libertarian. One Yes voter urged ministers to “control the quality”, while another said legalisation could “take money from criminals” and free police to pursue violent crime; tax revenue appeared, but usually as a supporting benefit rather than the central claim.
No voters answered with the costs of making cannabis ordinary. The floor’s strongest No argument warned that “A shop on the high street normalises it”, while another voice described a habitual user’s decline “from a brilliant mind to the uncontrolled depths of depression and psychotic episodes”. Their case was less about whether the black market works than whether the state should make access easier.
That left the two sides arguing past each other: Yes voters treated existing use and criminal supply as the facts to manage, while No voters treated normalisation and psychological harm as the danger to avoid. The sharpest No formulation — “Crime is not fixed by a till” — captured the room’s unresolved question about whether regulation would displace harm or simply relocate it.
The narrow decision reads less like enthusiasm than a demand to test prohibition against regulation, with public health still the price of admission.
29 Opinions
The war on drugs didn’t stop anyone using cannabis. It just shoved people who already do onto a black market that’s unregulated, unsafe, and can be laced with god knows what.
It can be a very lucrative business if the government in this country actually use their brains. It works in other civilized countries and it also has very positive medical use too so yes I say legalise it immediately. Take advantage of the inevitable because it will never stop.
Free, adult people can choose any poison they like. Making cannabis legal would improved safety and increase budget income rather than build up criminal activities.
Cannabis helps people with chronic pain and other ailments. If left illegal, it will be force grown, which affects users badly. If it becomes legal, cannabis will be safe. There is, IMO, no reason for it to remain illegal.
When the USA had prohibition it only created massive criminality and was abandoned as a complete failure. The current policy is also prohibition, is also driving widespread criminality and is also a complete failure. No young person who wants to smoke weed has been prevented from doing so by these laws We have to start with some honesty and work on laws which will work
Legalising, regulating, and taxing it takes money from criminals, stops dangerous unregulated synthetic weed, and brings in billions for public services while freeing up police to tackle violent crime
The legalisation of cannabis opens the country up to an enormous amount of additional tax revenue, as well as going a long way to helping reduce workload of the Police force.
It is a no brainer. It is widely used already in the UK, standardising strengths and decriminalising supply would improve the safety of the product and remove criminal motive from the industry that already exists. Raising tax is a fairly moot point as most money will be laundered and tax via other businesses.
The police actions to stop drugs have never worked as its a wanted trade. Make it legal, control the quality and I would rather people were stoned than drunk, behaviour, health and less violence due to alcohol would be better
You can get this on prescription! If its good enough for that it should be at least decriminalised, that way we could raise taxes! Remember MPs already grow cannabis for the medical industry.