UK public warms to new legislation

The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis together with drug policy pressure group Volteface commissioned Populus to find out where public opinion now sits for both medical and recreational access to cannabis and cannabis products.

The study revealed that 13% of UK adults – around 6.7 million people – plan to ask their doctor or healthcare provider about accessing cannabis medicines now they are legal to prescribe on the NHS.

Meanwhile, 76% would be willing to do so, and this level of agreement is fairly consistent across demographic groups, say researchers.

Public support for cannabis legalisation is also at an all time high. The general public is almost twice as likely to support the legalisation of cannabis in the UK as they are to oppose it. Some 59% of those surveyed strongly support or tend to support the legalisation of cannabis, compared to 31% who strongly oppose or tend to oppose.

Only a third of the British population (34%) think the sale and possession of cannabis should remain a criminal offence.

Jon Liebling, political director at cannabis campaign group theUnited Patients Alliance, said: “The polls speak for themselves; we now have huge support in the UK for the 1.1m people that already benefit from cannabis as medicine, half of whom have been too scared of legal consequences to even discuss their consumption with their doctor and according to the poll, up to seven million more people will be seeking to discuss cannabis-based treatment options with their doctor.”