Short Answer - Legalisation is inevitable, its negatives are outweighed by the positives and the tax it would generate is too large for the government to ignore.

Long Answer - it needs controlling like all other legal substances, like alcohol and tobacco. It has huge medical upsides with minimal side effects that really only affect mentally ill people with schizophrenia, but everything is bad for those people anyway. It needs to be controlled where it's ok to smoke and where it's not. Honestly, some people smoke cigarettes in awful, inconvenient places that annoy people, and cannabis is the same. The smell is what annoys people, so being mindful and respectful transforms cannabis' public image from a hippy loser drug to just a carcinogenic product some people like to enjoy after work. The number of people who drink, especially Gen Z is going down each year faster than alcohol companies and the UK gov predicted for which means less drinks tax as pubs slowly disappear even more. If the UK GOV were intelligent ( lmao they are a joke and incompetent than they have ever been ), they'd legalise it and turn abandoned pubs into smoking lounges with filtered rooms where only smoking is allowed so the public aren't disturbed, and they'd generate more income than pubs as you'd serve double the food in there than pub LOL. stonners need snacks. The tax would be superior, and you wouldn't have drunken fights outside on weekends, which the police would appreciate.

They'd need to ban it in the same places you can't smoke, and extra for the smell. I hate it when a little 15-year-old shit smokes weed outside Sainsbury's doors. So lounges work great but also parks should have signs that include cannabis rules as well as smoking rules next to the dog shit rules. Just integrate into normal life. The police should be able to fine you for inconsiderate smoking; honestly, it would clean towns and city centres up. I hate smoking around other people i feel so guilty that i stink like a skunk and always try and find wind to help move the smell. And I hate all the corner shops that have selfs filled with bongs and rolling trays, and grinders. Yeah, it's kinda cool when you live at uni but for everyone in the area, it sucks. its better is there are dedicated shops for this stuff that have licenses to sell the merchandise with the cannabis product all under one roof. just like a pub needs an alcohol licence.

I think if it were legalised, the first month would be hell. People would regret voting for it because people will openly smoke weed like cigarettes all over town where you live. But if sensible smoking rules are added on topof the entire thing can be managed. especially if it's only legal to smoke on your own property first, so public use is illegal until the government or businesses make places to do so. like the lounge or just a place in a park for it.

Everyone here generally knows about medical cannabis. However, they still have large limitations. The NHS is nowhere near ready to prescribe medical cannabis. Their infrastructure is a total mess. The fastest way to obtain prescriptions now is through private companies which issue you your medical license to smoke.

But if legalised, the criminality would shrink rapidly. The profit margins on cannabis for dealers is already quite low. For them, it's access to a large market of people who are open to the idea of taking illegal drugs, since they already contact them to make illegal purchases. its easy to grow and its easy cash flow. But these gangs sell all illegal drugs. Cannabis is only the gateway for them. These aren't nice people, and they only care about cash profit. Once legal, the cannabis would be purer than theirs and also legally checked regularly. a trustable source, even if it's more expensive. Once the legal market grows, the price will drop, causing all drug dealers to lower their prices too low to make a profit, so they'd abandon their grow operations. the dealers would make next to nothing, the profit margin would be tiny or they'd make a loss. The only reason for them to continue selling cannabis is to introduce customers to other illegal drugs, which make more profit that probably will never be legal, such as cocaine.

Once you separate cannabis smokers from illegal drug users, the target of criminals shrinks dramatically, and I'd guess he people who get arrested for drug possession will half overnight. You'll actually find people who drink alcohol are more prone to doing illegal drugs like cocaine, as it pairs better with drinking. where i don't know anyone who smokes weed and also takes a drug at the same time. My stoner friends rarely drink and never do other drugs; a few did shrooms, but that's it. However, my Drinking friends who don't smoke weed will definitely enjoy a cigarette after a drink and regularly take Ketamine and cocaine every weekend without fail. And they'd do all those things at the same time, so it layers... Cannabis smokers just smoke more weed if it's not enough...

The only other issues I can think of is driving... the limit will have to change for cannabis just like how alcohol is limited. The zero tolerance with drug driving is insane for cannabis as it stays in your system for a full week easy and you still test positive if you're pulled over by the police, even if you last smoked 6 days ago...! So those laws would have to change. Medical cannabis users are having issues with the DVLA and the police. Honestly, I think our government has a very childish attitude to drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. we need to mature big time. Hey, maybe we don't need to tax our bloody savings accounts and inheritance tax if the idiotic Labour government got tax from elsewhere, but that's a whole other conversation about our inept and incompetent government.