When Ideology Beats Science. Why the Reclassification of Cannabis Within the United Kingdom Failed

During the past decades several countries around the world have decriminalised or even legalized the possession of Cannabis for personal consumption. Originally, drug policy in the United Kingdom followed this pattern, as the British government declassified Cannabis from a Class A to a Class B drug in 2004. However, against the international trend towards more liberal Cannabis policies and against the recommendation of their scientific advisors, the government reversed the reform in 2009. This paper addresses this puzzling development by focusing on the public debate around the respective reforms. Drawing on about 900 articles from the Guardian and the Times, this article uses a discourse network analysis to explain why a more liberal Cannabis policy within the UK failed. The results show that a main reason for the failure lies in the development of the discourse about the reforms. While the introduction of the reforms in 2004 was influenced heavily by scientific arguments and health concerns, ideological justifications stemming from law and order became more central to the discourse afterwards. This led to the emergence of new discourse coalitions making the debate about criminal sanctions and the deterrence from consumption which successfully marginalized actors drawing on scientific arguments. Against the background of an increasing number of countries moving to more lenient Cannabis policies, the results from the British case help to understand the processes leading to permissive reforms, as well as the conditions that these reforms are perceived to be successful.