Opinion: Why Cannabis Must Remain Illegal in the UK — A Retired Police Officer’s Perspective
Paul Howes 🇬🇧
Chief Development Officer | Leadership & Crisis Management Expert | Trustee | Former National Firearms Instructor (Met Police) | Security | Training & Development/Safety Officer Eastbourne Town FC
As a retired police officer with over twenty-five years of frontline experience, I’ve seen firsthand the devastating impact that drugs, cannabis included, have on individuals, families, and communities. The ongoing calls to legalise cannabis in the UK may come from a well-meaning place, but they are dangerously misguided.
We’re told legalisation will raise tax revenue, reduce crime, and let the police focus on ‘more serious offences. But those who’ve worked the streets, responded to violent incidents, and dismantled criminal networks know the truth: cannabis is not the soft drug it’s often made out to be. It ruins lives, fuels serious crime, and puts innocent people at risk. That’s why I firmly believe it must remain illegal, and why tougher sentencing is long overdue.
Mental Health and Violence: A Pattern We Cannot Ignore
There’s a growing body of evidence linking high-strength cannabis to serious mental health conditions, especially among young people. During my service, I lost count of the number of times I attended incidents involving individuals in the grip of psychosis after prolonged cannabis use.
Take the case of Michael Stone, who murdered Lin and Megan Russell in a frenzied attack. Or Matthew Strachan, who killed his mother while suffering a psychotic episode. Both were heavy cannabis users. Then there’s Nicholas Salvador, who beheaded 82-year-old Palmira Silva in her garden in Edmonton, London. Those who knew him described drug and alcohol abuse, and police confirmed his use of cocaine and skunk cannabis.
These are not isolated cases. They represent a grim reality: cannabis can and does contribute to extreme violence when users lose their grip on reality. It’s not just about the individual user, it’s about the innocent people who become victims as a result.
Cannabis Cultivation: Modern Slavery in Plain Sight
Another often-overlooked consequence of the cannabis trade is the human cost behind the scenes. In the latter years of my service, I was involved in several operations targeting large-scale cannabis farms hidden in residential areas, industrial estates, and even converted attics in quiet suburban streets.
What we found was deeply disturbing. Many of these grows were being run by criminal gangs who had trafficked vulnerable people, often from Vietnam, Albania, and Eastern Europe, to live and work in appalling conditions. Locked inside for months on end, these individuals were forced to tend the plants under threat of violence, often with no pay, no contact with the outside world, and no means of escape.
Let’s be clear: this is modern slavery. Legalising cannabis won’t magically erase this exploitation, it will likely drive it further underground, making it even harder to detect and dismantle.
Driving Under the Influence: An Increasing Threat
Driving under the influence of cannabis is another issue that doesn't receive nearly enough attention. It dulls reaction times, affects concentration, and impairs judgment. Yet far too many drivers think it's harmless.
In countries where cannabis has been legalised, such as Canada and certain US states, there has been a noticeable rise in road traffic collisions involving cannabis-impaired drivers. Lives have been lost because someone thought they were ‘just a bit stoned’ and could still drive. We’ve already seen enough carnage on our roads — why would we risk adding more?
The Myth of Economic Benefit
Proponents of legalisation often talk about the tax revenue cannabis sales could generate. But that argument falls apart when you take into account the hidden costs.
Legal markets haven’t wiped out illegal ones. In Canada, around 40% of cannabis sales still take place outside regulated channels, where it's cheaper and stronger. Meanwhile, the NHS would face increased demand from users experiencing psychosis, depression, and anxiety. More mental health referrals, more hospital admissions, more strain on a system already stretched thin.
And then there’s the wider economic impact. In schools, I saw promising young people fall behind or drop out entirely due to cannabis use. At job interviews, I watched employers turn away candidates because of poor attendance, low motivation, or a criminal record for possession. Cannabis affects productivity, ambition, and long-term prospects, and by extension, it affects the economy.
Sentencing: Time to Get Serious
Some argue that criminal penalties for cannabis are outdated or excessive. I disagree. If anything, we need to send a much stronger message.
Stronger sentencing can:
Letting standards slip only emboldens the very groups who profit from misery, gangs, traffickers, and unscrupulous dealers.
Learning from Other Countries
We’ve got no shortage of international examples to study. Legalisation in the USA and Canada has led to an increase in usage, particularly among teenagers, and a persistent black market that continues to thrive. Whatever their intentions, these nations are now dealing with more addiction, more traffic fatalities, and more mental health crises.
Singapore takes a much firmer stance, and while their punishments are strict, their results are clear: one of the lowest drug use rates in the world. I’m not advocating the death penalty, far from it, but we should acknowledge that a zero-tolerance approach, backed up by consistent enforcement, can work.
A Final Word
Cannabis is not a harmless herb or a bit of harmless fun. It’s a drug that ruins lives, fuels organised crime, and burdens our public services. The push to legalise it in the UK is both premature and deeply naive.
As someone who’s seen the reality of cannabis-related harm up close, from bloody crime scenes to ruined families, I urge policymakers to hold the line. Keep cannabis illegal. Get tougher on traffickers and dealers. And ensure our sentencing laws are robust enough to send the right message.
The safety of our communities depends on it.
Crowd Control Advisor at Independent
4moThe slaughter (by a samurai sword)of a young boy walking to school in Hainaught and the ferocious attacks on emergency responders (police and ambulance staff) plus the entry into private home and the attack on a father in front of his child. All committed by man who was influenced by cannabis. This incident is a terrible effects of cannabis. It is not just a peace and love, pain therapy aid, there are psychotic effects that can prove deadly.
Ops Tech at GE Energy Sutton Bridge
4moWayne Campbell I'd argue that it isn't a waste of time given the help that people can get from cannabis where other medications have failed, sometimes life saving. Thanks for engaging as far as you did anyway, it's much appreciated, please take a look at the endocannabinoid system if you have time, the knowledge you gain could save your life or that of a loved one. All the best.
Retired.
5moPaul Howes. What is conscience?
Right to Health = Justice & Accountability
5moPaul, also worth noting: the continued criminalisation of drug use demands serious scrutiny. Those promoting punitive approaches must now explain themselves—and be held accountable for the immense, often unintended and preventable harms caused. If punishment were effective, we’d see reduced harm. Yet the evidence consistently shows the opposite: mass incarceration, untreated health conditions, and stigma that drives people away from care. So where is the evidence that punitive strategies offer sustained benefits to individuals or societies? The burden no longer lies with harm reduction or public health professionals, decades of science back their work. The onus is now on those defending punishment to provide clear, credible evidence that it helps. Who exactly is being helped—and how? Because everything we know, epidemiologically, socially, and economically, says otherwise: punishment doesn’t reduce safe drug use, doesn’t reduce harm, and doesn’t improve public safety. If there’s evidence to the contrary, now is the time to show it.
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5moThanks for sharing your perspective, Mr Howes. And for your invitation to respectful and constructive debate. In many ways, legalizers like myself are on the same side as you. Both of us would agree that a society where a significant proportion of the population are drunk or drugged much of the time is unlikely to prosper. Empirical evidence, such as that of the "British System" (1926-1971) for drugs and the Licensing Act (1921-1988) for alcohol produced a minimum of consumption of both. This evidence suggests that there is an achievable minimum of consumption - without resorting to draconian measures like Singapore. Prohibition doesn´t produce control: it produces the opposite, as the American alcohol prohibition showed and our drug prohibition does now. The key is control of LAWFUL supply: if it´s too lax you get epidemic intoxication; if it´s too tight, you get violent gangsterism. And both these extremes increase consumption. The empirical experiment required is to find that optimal minimum by appropriate controls on LAWFUL availability.