Historique
Article de Périodique
The costs and benefits of cannabis control policies (2020)
Auteur(s) :
HALL, W.
Année
2020
Page(s) :
281-287
Sous-type de document :
Revue de la littérature / Literature review
Langue(s) :
Anglais
Refs biblio. :
51
Domaine :
Drogues illicites / Illicit drugs
Discipline :
SAN (Santé publique / Public health)
Thésaurus mots-clés
CANNABIS
;
POLITIQUE
;
LEGALISATION
;
SANTE PUBLIQUE
;
COUT
;
BENEFICE
;
DEPENALISATION
Résumé :
As is the case for most drugs, cannabis use has costs and benefits, and so do the policies that attempt to minimize the first and maximize the second. This article summarizes what we know about the harmful effects of recreational cannabis use and the benefits of medical cannabis use under the policy of prohibition that prevailed in developed countries until 2012. It outlines three broad ways in which cannabis prohibition may be relaxed, namely, the depenalization of personal possession and use, the legalization of medical use, and the legalization of adult recreational use. It reviews evidence to date on the impacts of each of these forms of liberalization on the costs and benefits of cannabis use. It makes some plausible conjectures about the future impacts of the commercialization of cannabis using experience from the commercialization of the alcohol, tobacco, and gambling industries. Cannabis policy entails unavoidable trade-offs between competing social values in the face of considerable uncertainty about the effects that more liberal cannabis policies will have on cannabis use and its consequences for better or worse.
Affiliation :
The National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research; The Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences; The University of Queensland, Australia