There is a distinct difference between decriminalisation and liberalisation/legalisation – TBH I am exactly not sure how many pro-cannabis activists are aware of this and suspect that some of those who are aware of this are glossing over the wider implications
the first is already happening in areas of NL, DK, PT, CH (and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Europe, even if someone is caught by cops they now rarely get anything stronger than a warning or caution).
Liberalisation / legalisation implies the acceptance of a commercial market for the product, no different from sweets, electrical equipment or building supplies. So there would still have to be some regulation with regard to quality control / safety / social implications, and whether or not UK remains within EU it would still logically make sense for this to be done across the continent in the same way that NO and CH also follow EU agreed standards for product safety.
My only concern with full legalisation is the current type of “startup entrepreneur” who seems to be irrationally hostile to any kind of regulation that reduces their short term profits; I am already reading about USA cannabis products being of variable quality and processed with harsh chemicals like butagas and other worse (to the point the safety authorities have detected a high level of solvent residue in the end product) though clearly some regions and businesses are better than others.
If the recreational use of smokeable cannabis were legalised in UK I reckon that the bosses of the startup companies would all within 5 years all sell out to “Big Tobacco” such BAT, JTI and ITL (after all this is exactly what happens with 90% of tech startups who end up being bought by Google, Microsoft etc) although the reality of this would be the NHS could still recover tax revenue and it would be no less harmful than the existing tobacco trade which isn’t going to disappear tomorrow no matter how much folk may wish it to.
