In the United Kingdom, cannabis (along with its psychoactive chemical compounds, such as THC) is illegal for recreational use and is classified as a Class B drug. Doctors can prescribe cannabis since medical cannabis was legalised in 2018. People who possess less than for personal use (and have no prescription) can be issued a nearly unique (only khat, containing cathinone, has a similar approach) cannabis warning, which does not go onto a permanent criminal record visible on a DBS check.
In 2004, the UK made cannabis a Class C drug with less severe penalties, but it was moved back to Class B in 2009. Medical use of cannabis, when prescribed by a registered specialist doctor, was legalised in November 2018.
Cannabis is widely used as an illegal drug in the UK, while other strains lower in THC have been used industrially for over a thousand years for fibre, oil and seeds. Cannabis has been restricted as a drug in the UK since 1928, though its usage as a recreational drug was limited until the 1960s, when increasing popularity led to its stricter 1971 classification.
Despite the fact that cannabis is still illegal in the UK, with limited availability for medical use, the UK was the world's largest exporter of legal cannabis.
History
Industrial use
The oldest evidence of cannabis in Britain was from some seeds found in a well in York; seeds found at Micklegate were associated with a 10th-century Viking settlement. Since it appears to have been mostly grown around the coastal areas it suggests the main reason for cultivating it was as a source of vegetable fibre which was stronger and more durable than stinging nettle or flax. This makes it ideal for making into cordage, ropes, fishing nets, and canvas.
With hempen ropes being fundamental to the success of the English Navy, King Henry VIII in 1533 mandated that landowners grow allotments of hemp; Elizabeth I later increased those quotas, and the penalties for failing to meet them. As fibre became more available and the growing of hemp became more widespread, people began to find many other uses for the crop. It became a very important part of the British economy. Eventually, demand had expanded to the point that the demand for more fibre was part of the driving force to colonise new lands. Thanks to its hardiness and ease of cultivation, it became an ideal crop to grow in the new British colonies. Moreover, the naval ships built to protect the new colonies and those built to bring the hemp back also increased demand, as much of their two hundred tonnes of ropes and sail cloth had to be renewed every two years.
Use as a drug Cannabis gained new attention in the English-speaking Western medical world at the introduction of Irish physician William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, who had studied the drug while working as a medical officer in Bengal with the East India Company, and brought a quantity of cannabis with him on his return to Britain in 1842.
Use of psychoactive cannabis was already prevalent in some of the new territories that Britain added to its empire, including South Asia and Southern Africa. Cannabis as a drug also spread slowly in other parts of the Empire; cannabis was introduced to Jamaica in the 1850s–1860s by indentured servants imported from India during British rule of both nations; many of the terms used in cannabis culture in Jamaica are based on Indian terms, including the term ganja.
Prohibition Cannabis prohibition began earlier in Britain's colonies than in Britain itself; attempts at criminalising cannabis in British India were made, and mooted, in 1838, 1871, and 1877. In 1894 the British Indian Hemp Drugs Commission judged that "little injury" was caused to society by the use of cannabis. Cannabis was banned in Mauritius in 1840, Singapore in 1870, Jamaica in 1913, East Africa Protectorate in 1914, and in Sierra Leone in 1920. In 1922, South Africa banned cannabis, and appealed to the League of Nations to include cannabis among prohibited drugs in its upcoming convention.
In Britain itself, in 1928 following its ratification of the Second International Opium Convention of 1925 (which required some limited controls over pure cannabis as a pharmaceutical ingredient, but not over prepared medications containing cannabis), the UK first prohibited cannabis as a drug, adding cannabis as an addendum to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920.
Cannabis remained a fringe issue in the British public consciousness through the Interwar years and beyond, associated with society's margins: "coloured seamen of the East End and clubs frequented by Negro theatrical performers". This perception was strained by a 1950 police raid on Club Eleven in Soho which recovered cannabis and cocaine, and led to the arrest of several young white British men. With the changing youth and drug cultures globally, cannabis arrests increased dramatically in the UK: "from 235 in 1960 to 4,683 by the end of the decade, principally involving white middle class youths with no previous convictions". By 1973, cannabis possession convictions in the UK had reached 11,111 annually.
With the passage of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, cannabis was listed as a Class B drug. It remained Class B, except for the 2004–2009 period where it was classified as Class C, a lower punishment category, before being moved back to B.
Cultivation The UK produces cannabis for use as a drug in illegal facilities inside private houses or apartments. It is also produced on large scale for medical use. The medical production is so high that the UK is the highest exporter of cannabis in the world. After cannabis as a drug was rescheduled as Class B in 2008 (see below), more people started reporting on their suspicions of illegal operations and in 2009-2010 almost 7000 illegal facilities were found by police in one year. It has been reported that sometimes Vietnamese teenagers are trafficked to the UK and forced to work in these facilities. When police raid them, trafficked victims are typically sent to prison. Sometimes they are sent home.
Usage Recreational drug Cannabis is widely used throughout the UK, by people of all ages and from all socio-economic backgrounds. In 2017, 7.2% of 16 to 59-year-olds reported using cannabis in the last year, making it the most commonly used illegal drug in the UK. The European drug report 2017 found that 29.4% of those aged 15–64 had used cannabis at least once.
Mental health concerns In February 2015, a team of researchers at the Institute Of Psychiatry, King's College London, led by Dr. Marta Di Forti, found that use of high potency cannabis known as skunk increased the risk of psychosis by three times, compared to non-use. The study of 780 people also found the risk of psychosis was five times higher for those who used cannabis every day.
Industrial cannabis Since 1993, the Home Office has been granting licences for the purposes of cultivating and processing cannabis. The UK government now provides free business advice and support services for growers and processors of cannabis for fibre. They can also issue licences for importing fibre in the form of hemp from abroad.
Animal feed The plant itself has not been used as fodder as too much makes animals sicken, and due to its unpleasant taste they will not eat it unless there is no other food available. Hemp hurd, also called shives, is the soft core of the cannabis plant which remains after the fibres are removed, and provides good animal bedding which can absorb more moisture than either straw or wood shavings.Hemcore animal bedding . Retrieved 15 May 2010.
Boiled cannabis seed is frequently used by British sport fishermen.
Legal status
Recreational use Cannabis is illegal to possess, grow, distribute or sell in the UK. It is a Class B drug, with penalties for unlicenced dealing, unlicenced production and unlicenced trafficking of up to 14 years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. The maximum penalty for possession of cannabis is five years in prison and an unlimited fine. A cannabis warning can be issued for small amounts (usually only up to ) of cannabis if it is found to be for personal use. This entails the police keeping a record, albeit one which carries no fine and does not show up on a standard DBS check (this means employers who want to check the criminal record of a potential employee will not see any cannabis warning).
Cannabis has remained a Class B drug since the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, except for a period from 2004 to 2009 during which it was classified as Class C, a lower punishment category. The 2004 reclassification (originally announced in 2001) removed the threat of arrest for possession of small amounts, for the purpose of allowing police to focus on harder drugs and violent crime. In May 2008, under the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, it was announced that cannabis would be moved back to Schedule B, against the recommendations of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Enforcement In the survey for the year ending March 2014, possession of cannabis offences accounted for 67% of all police recorded drug offences in the UK.
In 2015, County Durham police commissioner Ron Hogg announced that they would no longer be targeting people who grow cannabis for personal consumption, unless they are being "blatant". Derbyshire, Dorset and Surrey police announced that they would also be implementing similar schemes. The move was in response to significant budget cuts, which meant that police forces were having to prioritise more pressing areas. The presence of Teesside Cannabis Club is tolerated by police in Stockton-On-Tees.
According to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request, there are large differences by county regarding how many cases actually result in an offender being charged. In 2016, Hampshire police had the most charges at 65%, while Cambridge had the lowest proportion of charges at only 14%.
Medical use Medical use of cannabis under certain conditions was legalised in the UK on 1 November 2018, after the cases of two epileptic children who benefited from using cannabis brought increased public attention to the issue. The children (Billy Caldwell, 12, and Alfie Dingley, 6) both experienced significant improvement in their conditions after they began using cannabis, but were initially not allowed to continue their treatment under UK law. This led to increased public outcry, particularly in the case of Billy Caldwell who was hospitalised with life-threatening seizures after his medication was confiscated by authorities.
On 20 June 2018, then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced his support for the medical use of cannabis and that a review would be undertaken to study changes to the law. On 26 July 2018, Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced that cannabis products would be made legal for patients with an "exceptional clinical need", and that cannabis would be moved from a Schedule I classification to Schedule II. On 11 October, the new provisions were officially presented and accepted in the House and the policy came into effect on 1 November 2018.
A licence is available from the home office to import prescribed medicinal cannabis. The first private, stand-alone Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered cannabis clinic was opened by Sapphire Medical in December 2019, since then a number of private clinics have opened across the UK. The UK's first medical cannabis registry set up and run by Drug Science charity was launched in August 2020. It is the biggest observational medical cannabis study in the UK with over 3,500 patients. The first UK medical cannabis study to receive approval from the MHRA ethics committee (REC) was titled CANPAIN feasibility study (evaluating the feasibility of undertaking a pragmatic real-world trial investigating CBMP in chronic pain patients). It was approved under IRAS project ID 304548 and will be conducted in the UK by LVL Health.