With Britain weeks away from a new Prime Minister, former UK parliamentary adviser James Matthewson argues that the incoming leader, widely expected to be Labour’s Andy Burnham, has a rare chance to be bold: end the war on weed and pour the proceeds into teen mental health.
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but when it comes to the options available to Britain’s next Prime Minister, there could be a real pot of gold hiding in plain sight.
For American readers, a bit of context. Britain is on the verge of a change at the top, with Labour’s Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, widely tipped as the frontrunner to be the next Prime Minister. He has built a reputation as a plain-talking figure who likes to position himself to the left of his party’s establishment. And far too few voices in mainstream British politics have made the argument I’m about to make, so I think it’s high time a Labour government finally hashed it out.
For a long time, the idea of drug policy reform has belonged to the fringes of our politics, with parties like the Greens or the Liberal Democrats leading the calls and shaping the conversation. But times have changed, and one of the biggest issues facing any prospective leader of our country right now is that many apathetic voters have simply lost faith in the ability of their politicians to change things. Changes do not always need to be drastic or highly visible. Some areas of policy require governments to wield their power like a scalpel, shaping the edges of laws and reforms with fine precision. But when facing a country that has seen few progressive shakeups at the heart of government, signalling your …
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Author: James Matthewson / High Times
