Lib Dems Want To Legalise Weed If They Win The General Election

The Liberal Democrats have confirmed that they'll legalise weed if they win the General Election.

Their manifesto pledge reportedly says that if they allow shops and social clubs to sell the Class B drug, they could raise up to £1 billion in tax. They'd give councils the opportunity to issue licenses to shops to allow them to sell weed. Although, you would still have to be over 18 to purchase it.

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Buzzfeed broke the news, and a spokesperson for the party has since confirmed the news.

Lib Dem spokesman Julian Huppert told Buzzfeed: "What we currently do is bad for health and mental health.

"The market is run by criminal gangs and they have no interest in public health - the system is causing huge amounts of harm."

"The prohibitionist approach costs a huge amount of money, means we criminalise a large amount of people and increases the harm," he added. "We spend a lot of money making people's lives worse. That cannot be correct."

Liberal Democrats claim that they could take control away from 'criminal gangs' and protect young people with a proper, regulated market. Criminal gangs would also lose a lot of money as a result of the properly controlled sales.

Obviously, we have to be realistic. Lib Dems only have nine seats at the moment, and a landslide victory is very, very unlikely. However, this is the first time that one of the main parties has pledged to legalise the drug.

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Not only would it raise money in tax, but it would save money for both the police and the prison system as a result of not having to prosecute as many people for possession.

Speaking to the Mirror last year, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: "I tried cannabis when I was younger, as did many other politicians.

"But sadly, too many other politicians want to continue forcing our police to waste resources chasing cannabis users when they should be able to take violent crime instead.

"It's time that we had the courage to look at the evidence and make a decision that will help us to tackle the real criminals instead of the current failed approach."

What do you reckon? Should this be seriously considered or should it stay illegal? Let us know in the comments below.

Topics: Cannabis, Marijuana, weed

Mel Ramsay

Mel Ramsay has been a Senior Journalist for Tyla and LADbible since 2015. She started her career writing obituaries and funeral guides online. Since then, her work has been published in a wide variety of national and local news sites. She is part of the BBC's Generation project and has spoken about young people, politics and mental health on television, radio and online. Contact her - [email protected]

@melramsay_