The European hashish trade is making ready to descend on London for Hashish Europa 2025, the place the suggestions of this report shall be a key subject of debate by the world’s main regulatory and hashish consultants. 

Hashish possession for private use ought to ‘now not be a legal offence’, recommends a extremely anticipated report led by Lord Charlie Falconer QC.

The London Medication Fee, arrange by London Mayor Sadiq Khan nearly precisely three years in the past, has printed its last report on the state of UK drug coverage, discovering that ‘wholesale prohibition treats hashish in a way that’s disproportionate to its harms’, notably for ethnic minorities within the capital.

With the general public backing from Khan, the 42 suggestions of the report have already sparked widespread debate all through the media, at a time when the federal government is targeted sharply on jail and sentencing reform following the publication of a equally controversial report from former Justice Secretary David Gauke. 

Suggestions from the latter have already been ‘accepted in precept’ by the federal government because the disaster within the UK’s jail methods reaches fever pitch.

Whereas the timing could seem ideally suited for additional reforms, which may assist hold 1000’s of minor offenders out of the jail system, whether or not Kier Starmer’s administration will take Lord Falconer’s suggestions as severely stays to be seen.

My assertion on the impartial London Medication Fee report: pic.twitter.com/CxMHxRusnE

— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) Might 28, 2025

Hashish within the UK

On Might 12 2022, Khan formally introduced the launch of the London Medication Fee (LDC), a brand new entity led by Tony Blair’s former Secretary of State for Justice Lord Falconer.

The fee was set as much as look particularly on the ‘effectiveness of our medicine legal guidelines and coverage on hashish’, with a give attention to decreasing hurt in London’s ‘traditionally marginalised communities’.

Its last report, ‘The Hashish Conundrum’, investigated the implications of the ‘non-medical’ use of hashish in London, and the affect of the present legal guidelines on society and the authorized system in continuous disaster.

“The present legislation criminalises importation, exportation, manufacturing and provide of hashish, with the opportunity of extreme related punishments. It additionally criminalises hashish possession and, on this, we discover it not match for goal”, it states.

Based on the newest figures from the Ministry of Justice, the variety of people formally handled by the Legal Justice System in England and Wales elevated by 4% to 1.52m in 2024.

Inside this context, out-of-court disposals (OOCDs), together with sanctions for lower-level offences like hashish possession, rose by 5%, with hashish and khat warnings dropping sharply by 68%, whereas penalty notices for dysfunction (PNDs) declined by 44%. Regardless of this drop 37% of the 4,100 PNDs issued have been particularly for possession of hashish, which means round 1,500 folks acquired on-the-spot fines for this offence.

As of 31 December 2024, the variety of prisoners with cannabis-related offences recorded as their predominant offence was 1,073, and the general common annual value for protecting a person in a jail is £51,108 (totalling £55,094,424 a 12 months)

Additional knowledge suggests that 1.0% of magistrates’ courts proceedings within the 12 months to June 2024 (12,429 defendants) in England and Wales have been for hashish possession offences. The estimated sitting day value to HMCTS for these circumstances is c. £1 million.

The report takes purpose on the ‘severity of penalties’ for hashish associated offences, notably for possession, which it states are ‘disproportionately excessive’.

“The severity of penalties for associated offences, notably possession, is, in our view, disproportionately excessive”.

Extra pointedly, it raises long-held considerations concerning the disproportionate affect on ethnic minorities and the misuse of ‘cease and search’ procedures.

“Whereas extra more likely to be stopped and searched… black Londoners aren’t any extra more likely to be discovered carrying the drug”, it recommended, including that “hashish policing, notably through cease and search, continues to give attention to explicit teams with damaging, long-lasting penalties”.

Decriminalisation, not legalisation

From the outset, the report makes it clear that it’s not advocating for the legalisation of hashish, which it states is ‘not the panacea for the harms related to prohibition’.

Finding out markets with extra liberal legal guidelines round hashish, such because the US, Canada, Germany and Malta, the authors state that whereas ‘legalisation has not been calamitous’ it has not solved the problems of prohibition, and ‘doesn’t eradicate the illicit market.

“The industrial mannequin adopted in some jurisdictions has meant the substitute of ‘Large Tobacco’ by ‘Large Hashish’”

Moreover, they consider that the proof ‘doesn’t counsel [risks] are outweighed by advantages akin to tax income rises… or reductions in pressures on legal justice methods’.

Nonetheless, it did notice that these conclusions have been partly as a result of an absence of ‘sturdy proof’ which it stated is ‘nonetheless in its infancy’.

The Fee, subsequently, considers decriminalisation a realistic compromise between full prohibition and full legalisation, a stance they consider is supported by the general public.

“Polling suggests a majority of the general public don’t assist wholesale prohibition… nor do they want to see lives ruined because of engagement with the legal justice system to be used of the drug”.

As such, the core advice of the report is the reclassification of hashish, eradicating it from the Misuse of Medication Act 1971 (MDA) to the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (PSA).

MDA to PSA

This reclassification would, in essence, decriminalise the possession of hashish, whereas protecting different hashish offences like distribution or cultivation nonetheless criminally punishable.

“Importation, exportation, manufacturing and distribution… stay unlawful, however most sanctions are lowered (jail custody stays an choice)”, it recommends, making an attempt to convey hashish sentences in proportion to hashish’s hurt profile.

As such, police would additionally lose the power to conduct a cease and search based mostly solely on suspicion of possession of hashish, which it hopes would ‘expose fewer folks to S&S’, as ‘suspicion of hashish possession alone will now not be reliable trigger to deploy the ability’.

Moreover, this variation would higher defend individuals who use illicit hashish for medical functions, however can not afford a personal prescription.

“Individuals who discover the drug alleviates signs of unwell well being and who’ve a hashish prescription are usually not liable to such sanction. Those that depend on unlawful hashish to ease the identical signs are, nevertheless, liable to be so – even the place medical information proof their unwell well being. This appears unjust: eradicating sanctions for possession of hashish for private use, no matter supply, provides an answer.”

Ought to this core measure be launched, the Fee additionally recommends retroactive safety for these with previous hashish possession convictions.

Mike Morgan-Giles, CEO of the Hashish Trade Council, informed Enterprise of Hashish: “It’s past doubt that present system is disproportionately impacting ethnic minority communities and reform is badly wanted.

“We contributed to the fee’s proof base and shall be learning the suite of suggestions carefully earlier than setting out our full place.”

Different key suggestions

Beneath is a abstract of among the different key suggestions within the report, lots of which have lengthy been referred to as for and will have a significant affect on the UK’s medical hashish trade.

• R1 Enhance knowledge on hashish use throughout ethnic teams through HO, ONS, MOPAC.
• R2 Fee a web profit financial evaluation of a authorized hashish market.
• R4 Introduce a drug testing service in London that features hashish.
• R7 Discover efficient therapy strategies particular to cannabis-related issues.
• R8 NICE ought to replace steering to mirror fashionable hashish and its dangers.
• R9 Discover use of prescription-grade hashish in treating issues from non-medical use.
• R14 Add endocannabinoid system coaching to pharmacy schooling (GPhC syllabus).
• R16 Ban the odor of hashish alone as grounds for cease and search (amend PACE Code A).
• R17 Enhance nationwide police knowledge on drug stops, together with drug kind and suspect ethnicity.
• R22 Quarterly evaluate of BWV footage from drug-related stops by impartial our bodies.
• R30 Take away pure hashish from the MDA and classify it underneath the PSA.
• R31 Use native byelaws to limit public hashish consumption in shared areas.
• R32 Make hashish possession offences non-disclosable in legal document checks.
• R33 Discover allowing restricted house cultivation of hashish, based mostly on worldwide proof.
• R34 Fund analysis into the effectiveness of CBPMs for a wider vary of circumstances. Medical Hashish
• R35 Evaluate Canada’s method to medical hashish information & steering and apply learnings in England.
• R36 Guarantee all police forces perceive legal guidelines relating to medical hashish possession and prescription.
• R37 If proof helps, assess coaching/prices of permitting NHS unlicensed CBPM prescribing.

Concerning the medical hashish suggestions, Dr Simon Erridge, Head of Analysis at Curaleaf Clinic, stated: “We all know that being categorized as a Class B drug hasn’t successfully lowered hurt or modified entry to hashish. With so many people who find themselves in want of hashish to handle a recognized well being situation nonetheless pressured to depend on illicit strategies of acquiring it, it’s vital we take away boundaries to regulated, quality-tested medical merchandise.