I’m really pleased to learn about this new pan-Europan initiative to gain one million signatures in support of legalizing cannabis.

The initiative is called “Weed Like To Talk” and it so far has nearly 50,000 signatures, however, it needs one million, with at least seven EU member states reaching the required threshold in their respective countries.

The petition is part of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) and if it succeeds in obtaining the necessary million signatories then it will force the European Commission to request it to initiate a legislative proposal, in theory putting citizens on the same footing as the EP and the Council. This ECI is an initiative from the Treaty of Lisbon.

I would urge all people to sign this worthy petition to legalise cannabis. So far nowhere near enough people have signed it, although an impressive 23,000 have so far signed it from Poland alone. The more awareness we can bring about this cannabis petition then the more likelihood it will succeed; for sure there are well over a million cannabis users in the European Union. There are an estimated six – ten million cannabis users in the UK alone.

The petition states:

A European solution to a European issue : legalizing cannabis. The ECI Weed like to talk aims at making the EU adopt a common policy on the control and regulation of cannabis production, use and sale.

The Main objectives are:

There is currently a heterogeneous legal map as regards cannabis policies in the EU. The question of coherence and discrimination is worth asking. A common policy on the control and regulation of cannabis production, use and sale would: (a) ensure equality before the law and non-discrimination of all EU citizens; (b) protect consumers and monitor health security; © end cannabis trafficking. Let’s leap toward the legalization of cannabis and the harmonization of national legislations across the EU.

You can sign the petition online if you are a national of any EU member state – here is the URL:

https://ec.europa.eu/citizens-initiative/REQ-ECI-2013-000023/public/signup.do#sthash.Xscm8ix1.dpuf

The deadline for this petition is in November 2014, so we’ve plenty of time to spread the word and get the campaign moving.

You may remember recently I blogged about the UK drugs petition by British Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, which passed the required threshold of 100,000 signatures. Less than half the required 100k people in the UK had signed it about one week before the petition was set to close, however, in the last week 85,000 people signed it, thanks to the celebrity endorsement of famous people like Sir Richard Branson and Russell Brand and the online campaigning organization Avaaz.

The result of this means British MPs will be forced to debate the issue of whether the UK Misuse of Drugs Act is working.

If the UK can find 85,000 people to sign a petition relating to drug law reform, then I’m sure we can get over one million signatories in Europe to sign the Weed Like To Talk Petition.

I hope everyone who reads this signs and also shares it on social media like twitter or Facebook and gets all their friends to sign it too.