A Tory-run group pushing for cannabis legalisation is being bankrolled by North American firms making the drug.
Crispin Blunt MP, who has predicted cannabis will be lawful in the UK within five years, is chairman of the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group which formally launches today.
Rob Wilson, a former Conservative MP, is chief executive of the venture which, despite its name, is not an official parliamentary group and has no affiliation with, or backing from, the Tory party.
Instead it is a private firm registered at Companies House with £400,000 funding from businesses selling cannabis for medical and recreational use in Canada, where the drug is legal, and the US, where some states allow it.
Mr Blunt is a director of the company but said it was not for profit and none of the elected politicians or policymakers associated with it was paid.
Crispin Blunt MP, who has predicted cannabis will be lawful in the UK within five years, is chairman of the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group which formally launches today
‘It is a group that is seeking drug policy reform to reduce the harm drugs do,’ he added. ‘Medicines are drugs that do good and enabling wider access to medicines derived from cannabis will also reverse the harm done by the currently untreated conditions and symptoms that they can safely treat.’
Medicinal cannabis was legalised in the UK in November but the Government has repeatedly said it has no intention of doing the same with street cannabis.
Many North American firms however believe laws surrounding non-medical cannabis will be relaxed, leading to a ‘green rush’ bonanza.
The reform group’s brochure calls for ‘safe accesses to medical cannabis for patients who need it’ and also for government reviews into whether the UK should follow the Canadian model.
Its board of directors includes four executives of Canadian cannabis corporations hoping to expand into the UK.
One is Ben Ward of the Toronto-based Wayland Group. It has a subsidiary selling super-strength cannabis that it advertises as ‘not for the weak’.
Wayland recently bought a small company in the UK, which it plans to use to import medicinal cannabis. It will pay the company £24million on top of its initial £3.8million if it secures a licence.
Another backer is the Supreme Cannabis Company, which also has subsidiaries growing high strength cannabis. This week it announced the launch of a London-based medical cannabis investment firm called Supreme Heights.
Several of the group’s financiers took part in this week’s Cannabis Europa Conference, a major networking event.
It is a private firm registered at Companies House with £400,000 funding from businesses selling cannabis for medical and recreational use in Canada, where the drug is legal, and the US, where some states allow it. Pictured: Drugs products made by Northwest Cannabis Solutions of Washington State
During a discussion event, Mr Blunt was asked how long he thought it would be before cannabis was legalised and responded: ‘Five years is the time I’m going to aim for.’
He added: ‘Our drugs policy is simply not working. We need a public space where we can have a proper debate about drugs policy. Decriminalisation is coming into the mainstream of the parties. This conversation is coming into the mainstream.’
The MP, who has admitted to using drugs in the past, drew a round of applause from the audience when he condemned the treatment of the majority of cannabis users who ‘fess up and are branded criminals’.
Mr Blunt, who also chairs the all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform, told the Commons last month that a number of billion-dollar companies in North America were bringing a ‘tidal wave of investor money’ into the medical and recreational cannabis industry.
But Avon and Somerset police and crime commissioner, Sue Mountstevens, who also spoke at the conference, warned about merging the debate on medical cannabis with the one about street cannabis.
‘Legalising recreational cannabis versus medicinal cannabis are two very big subjects, and trying to conflate them together plays to a certain group’s agenda,’ she said.
‘They are circling the UK because they want to make money out of cannabis. That’s what it felt like having so many commercial companies at the conference. I’m not saying I don’t want businesses to make money, but it needs to be done properly and transparently under a great deal of security.’
Mr Blunt last year received £6,282 from two US cannabis firms to cover travel and accommodation for himself and two staff on a trip to ‘understand the regulatory, licensing and economic issues around the cannabis industry in Washington State,’ according to a Commons register of interests.
Mr Blunt told the Daily Mail last night: ‘The names of all our investors will be listed on our website at launch. We are a transparent organisation and we will therefore always disclose who our supporters are and our objectives as an organisation.’
Mr Blunt said he discussed the formation of the group informally with Tory chairman Brandon Lewis and had reserved receptions at the party conference.
He added: ‘The word Conservative is not owned by the Conservative Party, and our objective is to get the centre right in the UK to support an evidence based re-evaluation of our drugs policy. The party however currently dominates the centre Right and its future policy is critical to deliver reform.’
He said the Electoral Commission advised that less than half those associated with the group should be signed-up Tories.