DAY 36 · PROPOSAL 35 · PART XXI · POLICY 39
Legalise and Regulate Recreational Cannabis.
Adult-only access. Regulated products. Public-health safeguards. A taxed legal market.
The core idea
Manifesto 1.1 proposes legalising recreational cannabis for adults and moving an established consumer market from illicit supply into a strictly regulated legal system.
Government would regulate cultivation, wholesale supply, manufacturing, product standards, testing, packaging, labelling, retail, advertising, age restrictions, potency, licensing, taxation, health warnings and enforcement.
Production and sale outside the regulated system would remain illegal. Driving while impaired would remain a serious offence.
What the legal framework would cover
Cultivation and supply
License cultivation, wholesale supply and manufacturing with traceable legal ownership.
Testing and standards
Establish product, contamination, strength, testing and minimum quality requirements.
Packaging and labelling
Require clear information about contents, potency, health warnings, responsible use and product batches.
Adult-only retail
Restrict legal sales to adults through licensed retailers with verified age controls.
Advertising control
Tightly restrict promotion, targeting, branding and claims that could encourage harmful consumption.
Licensing and enforcement
Inspect operators, publish standards and apply penalties, suspension or closure when requirements are breached.
A three-level taxation system
The master manifesto proposes cannabis taxation at three points in the legal supply chain.
The exact rates are not specified and must be modelled together, rather than treated as three automatically cumulative burdens.
1. Wholesale
Apply tax at wholesale level, with clear rules covering valuation, reporting and transfers between licensed businesses.
2. Producer
Tax suppliers or producers, potentially reflecting product volume, category or potency.
3. Retail
Tax the final consumer sale while ensuring that legal prices remain competitive enough to displace illicit supply.
Tax rates should be reviewed periodically using evidence on consumption, illicit-market activity, public-health outcomes, product potency, tax receipts, crime and the development of the regulated market.
Implementation choices still to be defined
Adult age threshold
Set the minimum legal purchase and possession age using health, safeguarding and enforcement evidence.
Potency limits
Decide whether potency limits, progressive tax bands, product categories or additional warnings should apply to stronger products.
Licensing fees
Model proportionate licensing fees that can fund regulation without excluding responsible smaller operators.
Transition
Define how licences, enforcement, existing consumers and the move from illicit to legal supply would be managed.
Public health and safety
Legalisation should not be treated as normalisation without safeguards.
A proportion of cannabis-tax receipts would be directed towards services that reduce harm, improve evidence and enforce responsible behaviour.
Addiction services
Expand accessible prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery support.
Mental-health services
Strengthen support, referral and research where cannabis use and mental health interact.
Public education
Provide honest information about impairment, dependency, potency, pregnancy and the risks to younger people.
Drug-driving enforcement
Maintain serious penalties and strengthen reliable testing, policing and public awareness.
Treatment and rehabilitation
Fund evidence-led treatment and practical routes into sustained recovery.
Health research
Monitor patterns of use, reported harms, claimed benefits, market changes and long-term health effects.
Mandatory consumer protections
- Clear health and safety information on every regulated product.
- Minimum quality standards and testing for contaminants, ingredients and potency.
- Tight advertising restrictions, including safeguards for children and vulnerable people.
- Traceability, product recalls, complaints procedures and enforcement against unsafe or misleading products.
- Continued prohibition of unlicensed production and supply outside the regulated system.
Questions for scrutiny
This proposal should be tested with public-health specialists, addiction and mental-health services, people with lived experience, police, road-safety experts, clinicians, pharmacists, regulators, local authorities, economists, tax specialists, licensed-market experts, youth organisations and the devolved administrations.
- What minimum adult age should apply to purchase, possession and entry to licensed premises?
- Which products should be permitted, restricted or prohibited within the regulated market?
- Should potency be capped, taxed progressively or controlled through product categories and serving sizes?
- How should the three tax levels operate without making legal supply uncompetitive with illicit sellers?
- What proportion of receipts should be protected for addiction, mental-health, education and research services?
- Which cultivation, testing, packaging, labelling and traceability standards should licences require?
- How should advertising, sponsorship, branding and online promotion be restricted?
- What possession, home-growing and public-consumption rules should apply?
- How should drug-driving law, impairment testing and enforcement be improved before implementation?
- What protections are required for children, pregnant people and those vulnerable to dependency or psychosis?
- How should responsible smaller businesses compete without allowing market domination by large corporations?
- What transition timetable, pilot arrangements and independent evaluation should precede national implementation?
- How should UK-wide reform coordinate with devolved health, justice, licensing and policing responsibilities?
The proposed direction
Proposal 35 would legalise recreational cannabis for adults within a licensed market covering cultivation, production, testing, packaging, retail, advertising, taxation and enforcement.
Unlicensed production and sale would remain illegal, and drug-driving would remain a serious offence.
A three-level tax system would be designed to produce public revenue while allowing the legal market to displace illicit supply.
A proportion of the receipts would support addiction services, mental-health provision, public education, enforcement, treatment and research.
Final policy must define the adult age threshold, potency rules, tax rates, licensing fees and transition timetable.
Source basis: Manifesto 1.1, Part XXI, Policy 39, “Legalise and regulate recreational cannabis”, Major Promise 35—Legal, Regulated and Taxed Cannabis. Exact tax rates, adult age threshold, potency limits, licensing fees and the transition timetable are not specified in the source and remain open for scrutiny.