Should recreational cannabis be legalised in the UK?

15 October @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

All ages

Should recreational cannabis be legalised in the UK?

In the last 20 years we have seen legalisation of recreational cannabis in many countries, which for decades opposed recreational cannabis fiercely such as the United States, Canada and Germany. It seems that nothing implies that there will be legalisation of recreational cannabis in the UK in the near future. Still, there are some changes which direct to a further legalisation of medicinal cannabis which has been crucial in the legalisation of recreational cannabis in the United States and Canada.

In the talk we will first have a look at the Netherlands, where the use and selling of cannabis was legalised in the mid-70s and second, we focus on Canada where it has been legalised in 2018. Both countries show how the normalisation and legalisation of cannabis might look for the UK.

There will ample space for Q&A and discussion and debate

About our Expert

Thaddeus Müller is Reader in criminology at the Lancaster University School of Social Sciences. He has researched a range of topics within the field of crime, transgression and stigma, such as the opioid crisis in the US, cannabis legalisation and drugs and alcohol dependency. Within these themes, he focusses on processes of doing/undoing stigma, which includes criminalisation and stigmatisation and how this is resisted by transgression, collective action and empowering counternarratives of normalisation and legalisation. In 2026 he has been involved in an ethnographic study focussing on women’s access to treatment and recovery in Rotherham.

Expert Hour is our take on Ted Talks, tucked away in our Secret Cinema. Each one-hour talk is given by a member of your local community, discussing their niche and interesting specialism. ‘Experts’ are picked by our volunteer panel, which means every talk is guaranteed to be absolutely fascinating.

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