United Kingdom: a Cannabis Club supported by the police

Michael Fisher founded the Exhale Club four years ago in the Middlesbrough area of Teesside, in northeastern England. Despite the ban on cannabis in the United Kingdom, the club’s 150 members pay an annual membership fee of £35 (€40) to enjoy a space where they can use it without fear of police enforcement.

The club is located in the Durham Police District, which has openly put an end to the hunt for consumers cannabis and small-scale growers.

However, the club prohibits the purchase and sale of cannabis on its premises, as well as alcohol, and generates revenue from ticket sales for certain events or from beverage sales. Patrons therefore bring their own cannabis to consume on site.

Club Exhale recently welcomed a visit from Arfon Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales, who was very impressed with the club’s organization.

«The conversation about the Cannabis »Things are changing, and it’s becoming more acceptable to talk about it. We no longer feel the need to hide," explained Michael Fisher in the Daily Mail.

Fisher also explains that he would like to see this model expand across the United Kingdom, and not just in Durham, where he says he has a «very good relationship» with Police Commissioner Ron Hogg, who has been working with the club for many years. He also suggested that North Wales could soon be home to a club.

Arfon Jones, who supports the use of cannabis for medical purposes, explained: «I visited the Teesside Cannabis Club because I wanted to see how it operates.»

«About 150 members pay £35 a year—and why not? There are pubs and clubs where people go to drink alcohol, so why shouldn’t consenting adults be allowed to use recreational cannabis without harming anyone or causing a nuisance to the neighborhood.»

In addition to its good relations with the police, the Club also occasionally hosts celebrities such as Jeremy Kyle, a radio and TV host, or Marc Emery. Michael Fisher, for his part, would like to see it become a legal business one day. Taxes from regulated cannabis sales could, for him, go through the Treasury rather than the black market, and steer consumers away from criminal networks.

The United Kingdom now has more than 80 official clubs, with strict rules and a model easily adaptable to other contexts.