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The global cannabis movement is alive and well and has shown no signs of slowing down any time soon.
If you take a step back and look at the industry on a global level, the positives vastly outweigh the negatives and have elevated the industry in the views of regulatory and government agencies in most parts of the world.
U.K. Police Waste 1 Million Hours on Cannabis Laws in 2015
One group most affected by the changes to cannabis laws is law enforcement. The relationship between the amount of time and money spent trying to enforce cannabis laws has been highlighted as a reason to legalize cannabis. We have not had the data to support it…until now.
A recent research study in the United Kingdom found that its law enforcement clocked in more than 1 million hours on cannabis cases in 2015. If the average police officer is paid $20 an hour (converted to USD from GBP), that is more than $20 million!
Despite the country’s strict laws against cannabis, law enforcement believes that prohibition is failing as cannabis is freely available and widely used.
Taking a Play out of Canada’s and Trudeau’s Playbook
Last week, the U.K.’s Liberal Democratic party took a play out of Justin Trudeau’s playbook when it announced plans to legalize cannabis at the federal level.
In 2015, Trudeau was down in the polls until he announced plans to legalize recreational cannabis if he was elected Prime Minister. This moved helped him gain significant support and win the Canadian general election.
Billions of Resources Wasted Every Year
If police officers in the U.K. spend more than 1 million hours on cannabis related laws, we can only imagine how much time is spent by law enforcement in the United States. Some reports estimate that $20 billion has been spent on the war on cannabis since 2010, but we believe this is conservative. There are also reports that a cannabis related arrest is made every 42 seconds.
The numbers reported are quite staggering especially when you look at all the issues faced by police officers. From hate crimes to opioid abuse, we face issues far greater than cannabis and need to make sure that enough time is allocated to more important concerns.
29 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis and we are not even in the first inning of a multi-decade growth cycle. This report helps quantify the amount of money being wasted on the war against cannabis and this money would be better spent protecting our country, our troops, and our citizens!
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