If you’re an active member of the UK cannabis community, you’ll no doubt be aware that the government recently rejected a petition, signed by over 13,000 people, calling for prescribed patients to be able to grow their own cannabis plants.
While the reply was comprehensive, it was ultimately a dismissal that’s become depressingly familiar. Frustrated activists often create well-meaning petitions in the hope that politicians will heed their pleas for easier access to life-changing medicine, each time becoming more dismayed when the response falls flat.
Understandably, people want change, but it’s time for an honest conversation – online petitions do not work, especially in the realm of cannabis reform. So what can we do instead?
The illusion of petitions
When it comes to Government petitions, the numbers don’t lie.
Of the staggering 33,181 petitions submitted to the UK government between 2017-2019, only 1.4% received an official response. Even more telling, less than half a percent were ever debated in Parliament.
Remember Brexit? A petition on the UK Government website begging the government to revoke Article 50 amassed over six million signatures, making it one of the most signed petitions in UK history. The result? A polite acknowledgement followed by business as usual. Six million voices effectively silenced with a bureaucratic pat on the head from the Tories.
The big brush off
To be fair to the current leadership, the reply to the home-grow cannabis petition was more detailed than previous brush offs, but the reply was familiar in its sentiment, wheeling out often repeated excuses; concerns about “diversion” of cannabis to recreational users, worries about quality control and safety, and vague gestures toward the existing medical cannabis prescription system. A system that remains prohibitively expensive, complex and inaccessible for many.
Petitions as political pacifiers
Arguably, the petition system isn’t designed to facilitate change, it’s set up to prevent it. Government petitions act as a pressure valve, allowing people to channel frustrated energy that might otherwise manifest as direct action. The psychological effect gives us a dopamine hit, a fleeting sense we’ve done something about an issue we hold dear. We click, we sign, and we move on. Meanwhile, the status quo remains unchallenged.
This isn’t simply a cynical view, it’s a well-thought-out political strategy. By creating the illusion of democratic participation without its substance, petition systems effectively neutralise dissent.
Beyond petitions – what actually works?
If petitions don’t work, what can we do instead? Successful law reform comes about from making more noise than just a list of names and email addresses. Medical cannabis was made legal thanks to the campaigning of distraught parents such as Hannah Deacon, who tirelessly applied political pressure on MPs and made her case known through the press. If you’re serious about cannabis reform, it’s time to start working with others to collectively become unignorable.
Direct political engagement
For an issue to gain political sway, politicians need to know that an issue impacts a growing swell of citizens. After all, it’s we who keep them in a job.
Writing to your MP is perhaps the easiest way to make your voice heard politically. TheyWorkForYou is a website that makes this incredibly simple. Just pop in your postcode, and you’ll instantly see who your MP is, along with their voting record, recent speeches, and, crucially, a form you can use to send them an email.
The beauty of TheyWorkForYou isn’t just in finding your MP, but in understanding them. Before firing off that email, spend five minutes checking how they’ve previously voted on drug policy or health issues. This inside info helps you to tweak your message. Consider emphasising economic arguments for a Conservative MP or focusing on patient rights or the financial benefits to the NHS for a Labour MP.
When writing, keep it personal, concise, and specific. Share your own experience with medical cannabis or that of someone close to you. Ask for a clear action, like raising the issue with the relevant minister, and request a proper response, not just a form letter.
Remember to follow up. If you don’t hear back within two weeks, send a polite reminder. Politicians and their staff are swamped. It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.
If your letters aren’t cutting through the noise, it’s time to request an in-person meeting with your MP, and don’t take no for an answer – they have to agree. These face-to-face conversations humanise the issue in ways that digital signatures never can. Prepare compelling personal stories and hard evidence showing how cannabis reform can benefit you, the people you love and wider society. Follow up relentlessly. Remember: persistence is persuasion’s secret weapon; many an activist has made a breakthrough by simply refusing to go away. Their persistent engagement with individual MPs eventually created champions within the system.
Community organisation
Strength comes in numbers, and joining forces with like-minded advocates can raise the volume of your collective voices.
Across the UK, there are many activist and cannabis patient groups, from UKCSC to PatientCann, that provide online forums and in-person events where you can link up with others.
If none of the existing groups fit your viewpoint, then create one. Connect with adjacent activists: patient rights organisations, civil liberties advocates, harm reduction groups, or even local movements for cannabis-friendly political parties, such as The Green Party. Joining forces with like-minded groups can create broader pressure for change and help you access support from movements already well-versed in enacting change.
Direct action
One thing sorely lacking in the UK today is direct, political action that demands to be heard.
Peaceful demonstrations and marches create visibility and media attention. While a petition can be silently rejected, thousands of patients and supporters outside Parliament demand a response. The optics of dismissing suffering patients become politically uncomfortable in ways that digital signatures never achieve.
Patient testimonials and public hearings bring the human cost of current policies into stark relief. When lawmakers must face the people harmed by their decisions, abstract policy debates become concrete moral choices.
Strategic civil disobedience has a long and effective history in cannabis reform. From medicinal users who have publicly defied laws to the social clubs that operate in legal grey areas, principled non-compliance has repeatedly shone a bright light on the injustice of cannabis prohibition, earning widespread press coverage at a local and national level.
The petition system isn’t useless; it’s dangerous. It creates the illusion of democracy while diffusing the energy needed for real change. It transforms righteous anger into a harmless click, converting potential activism into digital signatures that can be effortlessly ignored.
The next time you see a cannabis petition, by all means, sign it, but don’t stop there. Follow it up with a call or letter to your MP explaining why the petition matters. Join an advocacy group to spread the message further. Arrange a demonstration to amplify the issue at hand. The government has designed a system that makes it easy to ignore your digital signature. Don’t make it easy for them to ignore you.
