Jón Gnarr calls for legalisation of cannabis, boxing and reptile keeping

Viðreisn MP Jón Gnarr has called for the legalisation of cannabis, gambling, reptile keeping and boxing in an opinion article published by Morgunblaðið, according to mbl.is.

Gnarr compares Iceland with the former Soviet Union, saying he was reminded of the Iceland he knew as a child after watching an HBO series about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

“Much has fortunately changed since then. But there is still some way to go,” he writes.

Cannabis, which contains the intoxicating substance THC, is illegal in Iceland. Gambling is also largely prohibited.

Gnarr says Icelanders still face strict rules on personal names, while the gambling ban costs the country billions every year. He argues that Iceland could allow cannabis and generate employment and tax revenue from it.

He also says traditional boxing is banned, forcing professional boxers to leave the country to practise the sport. Iceland is, he adds, one of the few countries where keeping reptiles is prohibited.

“This must change. Bans work on children, but not on adults,” Gnarr writes.

He calls for individual freedom and personal responsibility instead of greater state control.

Gnarr says Iceland in his youth had more in common with the Soviet Union than many countries that were geographically closer to it. He describes travelling to countries such as Denmark as an experience of utopian liberalism, where people could live as they wished.

He also recalls that gay people were mocked in Iceland, while in Copenhagen people could even own dogs and walk them on the streets. Dog ownership, by contrast, was strictly prohibited in Reykjavík at the time, he writes.

The full article is published in Morgunblaðið.