The Evolution of Cannabis and Society

Cannabis. It’s illegal in the UK without a prescription – and despite decriminalisation abroad, it’s likely to stay that way. When did people start smoking cannabis in Britain? Why is the law against it so patchily enforced — but apparently impossible to repeal?

Ros Taylor talks to Prof Toby Seddon and former stoner Ian Dunt about the weed.

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Toby Seddon is Professor of Social Science, head of the UCL Social Research Unit and the author of Rethinking Drug Laws: theory, history, politics (Oxford University Press).

Ian Dunt is a journalist and author.

Audio clips are from This Week: Cannabis (1967), Hyde Park London Pot Rally and Keir Starmer interviewed by ITV.

The politicians’ speeches voiced by Seth Thévoz can be found in Hansard.

I drew on the 2024 Crime Survey, extracts from Dope Girls: the birth of the British drug underground by Marek Kohn, figures on drug seizures, the Irish National Drugs Library, The cannabis class: what happened when the legal status of cannabis was reclassified (Ian Hamilton) and the London Literary Society’s blog on Colin Macinnes.

Getty has pictures of people dancing at the Paramount Dance Hall in 1949.