Charge

Charge being one of the many slang terms for marijuana when I was young. Stuff that I did make some use of in those far off days.

I have always been of the belief that making something illegal that lots of people want to do is unlikely to be the way forward. Just think what a mess they got into in the US with prohibition. Or the mess that they are in now with both cocaine and medical opioids.

And I am not much swayed by the argument that the something in question might well be harmful, given that the harm is mostly to the person concerned and aggravated by the fact of its being illegal.

And it has been a puzzle why it has taken us so long to legalise marijuana. I recall a chap at the Home Office, probably around the same age as myself, muttering something about the time never having seemed right. Which didn't then and doesn't now sound like serious opposition.

So I was interested to see a report from YouGov about all this (references 1 and 2). And surprised to see that only slightly more people favoured doing something about it than supported the status quo.

I guess we still have a while to wait for action.

PS 1: I also read that 'a little over one in three Britons say they have ever used cannabis'. If the clientèle of TB of old is in any way representative, that is something of an underestimate. Perhaps people don't like admitting to doing - or even to having done something - that is illegal, even to the anonymity of a computer survey from from YouGov.

PS 2: Gemini tells a good story about the fate of prohibition here. It seems that the temperance movement had probably already peaked by the time that Lloyd George bore down on working class drinking during the First World War. By the time the war ended, compromise in the form of licensing laws was thought to be enough. It helped that banning booze in pubs was seen as a class thing, with the toffs carrying on as before - and then we had the discouraging example of the US.

Gemini also reminds me of all the water fountains built by the Victorians. Of which that noticed at reference 5 is one, if not the work of the temperance movement proper.

References

Reference 1: https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54564-where-does-the-british-public-stand-on-cannabis-in-2026.

Reference 2: https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Internal_Drugs_260401_w_kPhUqKC.pdf.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug). 

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-trophy.html. From the days when the powers that be took a slightly different line. Talk of the government ganja farm at Naogaon.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-buxton.html.