There is where the headlines this hour. Those were the headlines. Now on bbc news, ca nadas legalised it, so three mps go on a weed trip to see if britain could do the same. It was the first major western country to go fully legal but has it worked . This programme contains adult themes. You could go to prison for a very long time in britain if youve got anything like this. Theres been a big shift in attitudes to cannabis in the past few years. Our current laws are a disaster. You might remember billy caldwell. His mum fought for him to get access to cannabis oil to help with his severe epilepsy. At every single stage of this campaign, we have mentioned making history. Billys case led to a big change at the end of 2018. Medicinal cannabis products can now be legally prescribed to some patients across the uk for the first time. Globally, where thats happened, its often not been long before Recreational Use of the drug has followed. Take, for example, canada. It legalised cannabis in october last year, the first major western country to do so. Thats good weed. With cannabis the uks most popular illegal drug, a group of british mps and charities have come to canada to see what some call the worlds biggest drugs experiment. Have you ever seen this volume of cannabis yourself . I never saw any volume of cannabis so, should the uk follow suit . In a couple of weeks, were going to be following a first of its kind three mps from across the political spectrum, heading to canada to see how legalising cannabis has worked out. But, first, i want to find out where they stand. Starting here in north london with the tottenham mp, david lammy. Not a man shy of having a strong opinion or two. The problem is in a constituency like mine, theres a brutal unfairness in the way that black youth are treated. Theyre stopped and searched. Often when you go right back to the beginning of that conversation, of that young person who picked up that knife, or that young person who gets caught handling drugs, the First Contact with the police and with crime was marijuana use in their teens. So thats his view. Can i go to westminster, please . But what about the other two mps . Right, well, this building just here on the right is the home office. Thats where uk drug laws are made. And weve done repeated stories when it comes to cannabis regulation, and they tell us repeatedly that there is no chance of changing the law when it comes to recreational drug use. That means that if youre caught with some cannabis, you could go to prison for five years. Hello, good to see you. How are you doing . Good to see you. First up, sir norman lamb from the liberal democrats, the only major uk Political Party to back legalising cannabis. I think, at the moment, we dont protect young people well. People have no idea what theyre buying on the street, it could be very potent strains which is associated with risks to your Mental Health. And to regulate and legalise the market so we can control potency seems to me to be much more sensible. Which is obviously what they want to do, or what they are doing in canada. Why is it you want to go and see their system up and running . Is itjust to see what you can learn from it . I want to see what the teething problems are, what we can learn from their mistakes, and what theyve done right, so that it can inform our approach in this country. But i really want to see it for myself, rather than just hear from others. The final mp on the trip is Jonathan Djanogly from the conservatives. He describes himself as an open book when it comes to drug policy. In my own constituency, in the last year, more young people smoked cannabis than they did tobacco. And so, people seem to be voting with their feet, and that says to me that ive got to take an interest in this. Do you think you could be persuaded that there is a better way of doing it, or a different way of doing it than we do here . Yes, i certainly go in to this with an open mind, both in terms of legalisation and regulation. So, well catch up with the three of them pretty soon. During the film, youre likely to hear a couple of phrases that are often mentioned when you discuss cannabis, and they are thc and cbd. Its quite important to understand what they are, and its definitely going to be important for those mps to understand it, too. Thc is the thing in cannabis, the chemical compound, that gets you high. Whereas cbd is the thing that counteracts some of the negative effects that thc can often have on the body. And some people say that cbd is good for things like sleep disorders, anxiety and some pain symptoms. So, with that cleared up, lets head a bit early to canada, and see how things are over there. Vancouver, to be exact. People here proudly call this the weed capital of the country. Im going to be shown around by piper. Hi. Hey, jim, how are you . Nice to meet you, how are you doing . Right, first up then. Youve got one of the weirdestjob titles ive ever heard of. Best job title. Go on, then what is it . Yeah, cannabis editor for the georgia street newspaper. Which is an alternative magazine . It is. Its a long standing independent newspaper here in vancouver. Its been operating for about 50 years, covering everything from arts and music, to politics and news and, of course, weed. And the fact you have that job title, and there is so much written about it, suggests quite how big cannabis is in vancouver, and canada generally, i suppose . Yeah, absolutely. Its certainly not something i had planned for when studying journalism back in university. But because of the shifts that are happening in the country, politically, agriculturally, economically, you know, there is a big demand for this news, and it is certainly something that requires your full attention as a journalist. So its great that i can actually cover it and use my full attention to do itjustice, hopefully. Pipers offered to take us to a shop that sells cannabis. And if youre into weed, its got a big claim to fame. They were one of the greater vancouver areas first licensed stores after legalisation. Proudly set on the little sign here. Said it. Yeah, theyve got it on a sign there, if you want to head inside, theres a couple of others. This place used to be run illegally, with authorities turning a bit of a blind eye. But its now moved into being fully legal and that means some big changes. One of the major differences is the way you can present cannabis now. So, theyre in smell proof containers, but you cant actually access the product. Right. Its not to be handled or touched or sampled. But they have these nifty containers now where you can actually pop up the top and smell them. Jim, this is mike babins, he is the founder and owner of the store here. How are you doing . Good. How has the process been . Its been. Crazy. Basically, everything has changed. I used to have a lot of funjust selling weed to people, and now i spend most of my time typing. Right. So, its more regulation . A lot. Stores like mikes have been able to legally sell cannabis as well as pre rolled joints, oils and capsules since october 2018. But there are still some products that arent currently available legally, including edibles, extracts and creams. Around half the weed here is still bought on the black market. This is craig ex. Hi. Nice to meet you. Piper has brought us to meet a guy who calls himself craig ex, or expertjoints. He runs a Media Company that specialises in. You guessed it weed. They do a weekly livestream on youtube, its got a Recording Studio and a website. Craig and piper are going to show me one of the other ways to buy weed. What theyre about to do is illegal. Some pot cheetos. You like cheetos . I will not, obviously, as the guy from the bbc. I will not be consuming any of your pot cheetos. But you order what you want to buy. But, in general, do you like cheetos . I like cheetos. Cheetos, in general, ok, with or without pot. Lets do a little bit of flour, as well. If youve ever used deliveroo or uber eats or something similar, the ordering process here will look really familiar. Just like that, you just click on there and. . Just like that. Does that make it feel very normal . Is that a bit of a danger . Yes. And so, naturally, Companies Like this are going to step up and go, here are the access points, and well make it easier for our customers that are already going to the black market because they cant get it at legal dispensaries. We only had to wait around ten minutes for their delivery to arrive. Doorbell rings 0h and that sound of the doorbell is our weed. Its suddenly there. Yeah, so i guess well be seeing them in a minute. One of the other things that people have talked about as well, is level of packaging as well, that has been. Hey. Hello. Passport 20 here, got a delivery for you. Fantastic. Could i see some id first, please . Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you very much. You brought the product. I have the goods. In a brown paper bag. Amazing if that is notjust iconic of black market, i dont know what is. So, right, lets have a look through this. It comes in a classic brown paper bag. We have smellproof packaging on the inside here. And, as you can see, we have. These are pot cheetos infused with a sativa cannabis, some flour there. And then this is another product that has not yet been included in the legal framework. Infused moisturiser or balm. Its. Lets see. Thats got all sorts of smell, compared to what you just smelled. Right . Yeah, thats very strong. Its very, very strong. Its a nice consistency. Actually, the real telltale sign of quality cannabis is. Comes from consuming it. Right. And i think the best way to tell if this is quality cannabis is if i consume some of it. Yeah. Its good weed. Is it heavy . Mm hm. Yeah. Its certainly better than. Better than the legal product ive tried so far, not to say that all legal product is bad, and not to say that all legal product is inconsumable, because its definitely a spectrum, as well. But i would say the best cannabis ive had so far are from sources like this, where they genuinely care about breeding and growing good craft cannabis. Vancouver is seen as a bit of a mecca for cannabis, but were going to leave it behind for now. So this is toronto. We arrived late last night. And, already, you can sense that this is a very different city to vancouver. It feels really massive, like a classic north american city. And were here to meet those three mps that we met back in the uk. The first day of the trip is all about mps hearing from the police and fellow politicians here. As they listen on, you cant help feeling theyre learning about a huge experiment when it comes to drug policy. My position as a canadian chief was. Regulate it, control it, tax it. You cant come all the way and sit in a Conference Room and be talked at. You need to see it first hand. The tour, so far, has been a lot of talks, its been a lot of experts, economists coming along, trying to persuade the people in the group that this is the way that we should do things back in the uk. Well, now, things have got a bit more interesting, i suppose, because theyve come out to see how its done out here in real life. This is the first stop on the tour. This is a shop a legal dispensary selling cannabis, and its probably the first chance the mps and the rest of the group have had of seeing how things are done over here. The first thing that surprised me is how clean and well kept it is. They are very highly regulated, ive just been talking to them. And i wasnt expecting this. One of the mps in the group wants to try some. Which do you tend to use . Ive done this one. The difference between what norman is buying here and the cbd oils you can buy in shops in the uk. Well, this oil contains thc the substance that gets you high. As someone who was central to the liberal democrats becoming the first party to back legalisation, he wants to know how it will affect him. Thank you very much. So, norman, talk us through what you purchased. So, erm. This is a small amount of thc, balanced with cbd. And. Having never used this before knowingly i mentioned there was possibly one accidental occasion. I want to be very careful. Im very cautious. And im, sort of, quite hostile about drugs generally. I mean, thats where i come from as a parent. But i want this purely for sleeping, arm, for relaxation. So. Ive been told to take half the normal dose to start with, which i will take 45 minutes before going to bed tonight and for the flight home. But i cant take this back home because its illegal in england. The trips been organised by a london based campaign group, volteface. It wants the uk to legalise weed. Its part funded by a big Cannabis Company here in north america called mpx. Theyve paid for most of the people to be here. But, like us, david and norman have funded themselves. Which is your most popular . This would be. Probably our biker kush right now. Right. And looking at the sort of thc levels in all of this, thats the strongest . Yes. Low cbd . Yes. And thats what people are after . Yes. They like to get a bunch, you know, yes. Thats what theyre after when they come in, right. They like that 5 star, so they want to get the highest they can get. Interesting. After seeing a couple of shops selling weed, the final stop for the mps is a big commercial cannabis growing operation, a couple of hours drive out of toronto. First up a change of clothes. Ive got no hair. Do i still need this on my head . After the rigmarole of getting changed, passing through some really strict security. The first thing that hits you is the smell. You can see that theyre all bar coded. And then. Just the size of the operation. Whats the value of this . This one here . Its also really loud in here because of all the ventilation fans. But what they told us is the weed in this room alone could be worth up to 300,000 canadian dollars. Thats over £180,000. And they can do five crops a year, making each room like this worth close to £1 million a year. What do you make of it . I think you could go to prison for a very long time in britain if youve got anything like this in your loft. So its, erm. A slightly strange feeling. You look at the plant, you know its marijuana. And, obviously, everything in your head is saying, this is wrong. Get me out of here, im going to get arrested. You know . Yeah. There does not appear to be the same level of debate about psychosis as there is in the uk, and i havent fully understood why that is. I mean, they do say to us that if its grown in very safe conditions, you have no impurities, its a safer product. And, of course, the labelling makes you exactly aware of what you are buying which youre not aware of on the street. And thats, i think, a real benefit from legalisation. Im really worried at the. Amount of seriously hard, potent skunk. Exactly. That young people are consuming. And some of them, its leading to Mental Health issues and psychosis. So, here, you see proper labelling, erm, youre usually able to talk to someone who is quite informed about thc levels and cbd levels. I would, if we introduced a regulated market in the uk, have a cap on potency. I think you should start there. I think it reassures the public, people know that what theyre buying is safe. Before we head back to toronto, i want to speak to scott the boss of mpx, which owns the facility to find out why a north American Company would invest so much money trying to persuade british mps to do the same back home. Do you want to see change in the uk, and is it right that youre interfering in the uks laws . Weve been happy to be a host to them, to give them some exposure to the business, give them some understanding of whats happening here in north america. If that helps make the right decisions in the united kingdom, its money well spent for us. And, potentially, money wellspent for your shareholders who might make a lot of money . And if we can get a. Look, the guy that makes an mri machine makes money, the doctor that performs surgery makes money. To say we dont have a profit motive would be lying of course we do. Were in business to make money, but were also in business to help the industry grow and to protect people. You want to see legalisation in the uk. Yes. What one lesson could the uk take from how canadas done it . The one lesson they can do is look at the mistakes that the canadian government made, and not repeat them. The approach, initially, was too conservative. We overkilled in terms of regulation. Now thats backing off a little bit, the government realises its made some mistakes. The industry will correct itself. The industry has always been there. Its just, who knows what youve been getting when you buy cannabis on the street. Quite nervous. Yeah . Thats because hes about to take the cannabis oil he bought earlier. So, im just interested to try it. Itjust seemed, you know, ridiculous if im here. Yeah. I might as well do something thats within the law that might help me sleeping. Right. Even though i wont be able to use it back at home. Yeah. So, now im supposed to put it under my tongue. Norman. All right . Hello. So, first questions got to be. Did you sleep better last night . Quite hard tojudge, because ive been falling asleep very quickly here anyway, cos these are long days were doing. Erm. And i did yesterday, i mean, i felt very sleepy and got straight to sleep, and felt that id slept deeply. But, you know, if anything underwhelmed. No great, dramatic impact. Certainly no strange sensations, which is what i was, sort of rather naively fearful of. But, er, there was nothing in my experience last night that has changed my view. Well, we said goodbye to the british mps, and were now heading to meet a canadian mp, who is actually really central to the story of how canada legalised cannabis. His name is bill blair, hes a former police chief from this town. And he was tasked byjustin trudeau, the prime minister, with getting behind the system, getting behind the law, and getting behind the big change that happened here. Hi there, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, as well. Thanks for giving us a few minutes of your time. Happy to. Are you happy with how the legalisation process has gone . I will tell you ive been very pleased. At times, quite pleasantly surprised at how smooth the implementation has been. And if you were to give this a school grade, for example, how successful on a sort of a, b, c, unclassified . Statistics canada now says about 47 of the cannabis being purchased in this country has been purchased from legal, regulated, licensed sources. Thats a real sign of real progress. And so. Erm, weve not done the job. This is an interim grade. But, quite frankly, right now, i feel that were on track. Id, sort of, give it a b, perhaps even a b . We are still in the midst of the process of displacing that illicit market. Right. Its important to look at this as a process, its a pretty significant Public Policy change in our country. The process of implementation began last year. But i will also tell you, on october 17th of 2018. We didnt throw a switch, except on one thing. On that day, we stopped criminalising another generation of young canadians, and i think thats a very good thing. Speaking to the likes of him, you could be left with the idea that legalisation has gone without a hitch. But lets be honest, thats way too simplistic. Before heading home, ive come back to vancouver. The weed market here is much more developed than everywhere else weve seen. So far, weve spent a lot of time being shown the side of canadas big drug experiment that both the government and the Legal Cannabis industry wants us to see. But thats not the whole picture. Around half the weed sold here is still from illegal sources. And whats sold in legal stores is widely criticised for its quality and price. So, do you want to give the guy who owns it a quick call, see if hes around . Yeah. To talk us through this charlotte, a brit who works as a consultant in the cannabis industry. Shes offered to introduce us to the owner of an unlicensed shop. Over here, they call this the grey area, unlicensed cannabis being sold in shops that certainly dont hide what theyre selling. Back home, wejust call this illegal. Many like this one have operated for years. But on the way today, we caught wind that the authorities are actively clamping down on these retailers. So were not even sure if its going to be open. Itsjim from the bbc, how are you doing . Hows things . Yeah, yeah. Come on in. It seems quite chaotic down here today . Well, yeah. The government has a court order to have us shut down. The reason why is, er, they feel that were outside the law. Tell me, whats going on here today . Ive watched you turn away three or four people who have come in expecting. This guy. Ithink. No . Its all right. He wants to come in but you cant. We cant. Well, he can come in, but we dont have any product here. We pulled it all off the shelves. Theyre threatening us with two years in prison. You know, again, the prices in the Government Stores are double. Taxes are huge on this. Massive. Charlotte . Yep. Being in here as hes turning people away, sending them away, regular customers getting sent away because this place is being closed down. Yeah. It all feels really chaotic. Yeah. Its hard then to say the uk should follow this, because this is chaos, isnt it . Absolutely. Well, its obviously slightly different in the uk because we dont have so many established dispensaries operating already, but, clearly, what this shows is that the government probably isnt the best person to be operating retail stores. And that you shouldnt be closing down stores when there isnt enough legal supply to service the market. You shouldnt be closing down industries when theres not enough legal stores in vancouver. And, also, we should be making sure that government regulations, government taxes arent so high that it makes the entire system unworkable. Hey, carol . Yeah . Several people have been trying to walk. They walked right past here and. Thank you. 0k. Right. And with that chaotic end, its time to leave canada. The mps have had a bit of time to digest what they saw, so im heading back to westminster to see what they made of it. Do you think cannabis should be legalised like it is in canada . From what ive learnt so far, im not convinced that we have the research or the knowledge about how to. Replace the criminality that currently goes with it. And i think weve got a lot to learn before we move towards legalisation of recreational cannabis, which i think will happen at some point, given that we have already legalised medical cannabis. The logic makes absolute sense that to regulate and control is so much better than to leave in the hands of criminals. David on the trip, i always got the sense that you were moving more towards normans position. Have you moved to normans position . Where do you stand now on the legalisation of cannabis . I think i probably broadly agree with norman. I mean, i was. So, to legalise . Yes. I mean, i was always of the view that it is insane to be criminalising as many young people as we are. Prohibition isnt working. So, what i saw in canada. It was the early stages of their experiment, but its absolutely the direction we should be going in. Once youre saying its ok for medicinal use, you are on a pipeline thats absolutely patently obvious. Lets do it properly, considered, but lets have a proper Cross Party Commission look at the evidence, look at the facts, and do it in a way that works for our country. With products like this on sale in here, you might think that were back in canada. But were actually a short walk away from parliament. The big difference here is, this shop cant sell cannabis. But is that about to change . Well. If so there are a lot of questions to get through. For example, how do you police drug driving . Why is so much of the cannabis available in canada so strong, especially with those links that we keep talking about to Mental Health issues . And will big business continue to take over . Or is there room in the market for some of those original players in the scene that we met . And, ultimately, remember. Canada came from very different starting position. They already had a grey area in the law for the drug. And, culturally, itsjust much more part of everyday life. I keep calling this the worlds biggest drugs experiment. The reality is, the final results are a long way off. Hello stop some spells are warm sunshine to come for much of the uk today but the sunshine just serving today but the sunshine just serving to act as energy, helping to develop some heavy thundery showers, particularly in the north of britain as he moves through the afternoon and evening. There will be if a cloud in the south. The sunshine will turn hazy through the course of the afternoon, maybe the odd isolated showers in wales and the south west. Further north, temperatures up to 25 in hull. It gives you an idea of the Energy Produced by the sun and that is what is helping the showers to blossom in the evening. The met office has issued a yellow warning for thunderstorms in the midlands, across much of north england into central and southern scotland. Intense rainfall to come in some areas during that period of the day, 20 millimetres to 30 millimetres possible with hail thrown into the mix, possibly. The showers are starting to drift off shore through the night. Overnight another band or front coming in across ireland were bringing heavy rain to southern scotla nd bringing heavy rain to southern scotland and parts of Northern England on sunday. The figure clad further south and wet weather to start the new week in the south of england and parts of wales as well. This system looks like it will push away eastwards promptly through the morning so things should brighten as the day pans out. A largely dry story in the afternoon for england and wales. More showery across scotla nd and wales. More showery across scotland and scattered showers in Northern Ireland as well. A fresher feel to monday thanks to a strong westerly wind. Temperatures 22 to 2a degrees stop on tuesday low pressure with further bands of showers swirling in. It looks like the northern half of the uk could be in line for some of the most intense rainfall. I would like to tell you the picture changes as the week pans out but below is a slow moving and that will keep the story looking very showery through the following five days as well, with the potential for heavier and more persistent rain as we look ahead to next weekend. This is bbc news. The headlines. Two Mass Shootings in the United States the first in a Walmart Store in el paso, texas, where 20 people were killed a suspect has been taken into custody by police hes been identified by local media as 21 year old patrick crusius. The second shooting took place in dayton, ohio. Ten people, including the shooter, have died. Police are stopping Whaley Bridge residents from returning to their homes, as more heavy rain is expected in derbyshire amid the battle to prevent the towns dam from collapsing Boris Johnson announces £1. 8 billion of extra funding for hospitals in england. 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