Legal use of the drug cannabis

Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous flowering plant indigenous to eastern Asia. The flower of the cannabis sativa can be turned into the drug cannabis, or marijuana, which contains the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Cannabis is considered an illegal drug in large parts of the world and using it, growing it, or selling it can result in time spent in prison. Some countries have taken steps to legalise marijuana in order to reduce criminal activity connected with the drug and to better be able to control who it is made available to.

Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalise recreational cannabis use across the whole nation. In 2013 the government passed a bill establishing a legally regulated market for both medical and non-medical use. Sales in pharmacies began in 2017, and are tightly controlled because customers have to register with the regulator and then are limited to buying 10 grams a week. The price is also set by the regulator, and customers have to use a fingerprint reader to prove that they're registered to buy, and haven’t reached their limit for the month.

The use of medical marijuana has been legal in Canada since 2001, and recreational cannabis use was legalised in 2018. When the Canadian government announced its decision to legalise cannabis, one of its main motivations was to reduce the black market, but Statistics Canada estimates that about 75% of cannabis users still use illegal cannabis. Reasons for this include the fact that it’s more expensive in legal stores and that there aren’t enough of these legal stores to meet demand, partly because a lot of local authorities are against cannabis being sold in their areas. The laws around cannabis use also vary by province and territory, with certain areas only allowing consumption in private residences, and others restricting sales to government-run stores.

And last but not least, the Netherlands. A blog about legal cannabis use wouldn’t be complete without reference to Amsterdam, where people have been selling marijuana in coffee shops since the 1970s. But while personal possession and use of marijuana by adults is decriminalised, it is not actually legal, but rather ‘tolerated’. This approach is driven by a desire to separate the market for cannabis, deemed to be relatively low-risk, from the market for other, more risky illegal drugs. Dutch coffee shops are allowed to operate under strict licensing conditions, which include age-access restrictions, a ban on sales of other drugs, and controls on the shops’ external appearance, signage and marketing. Additionally, there is growing support for a system of legal cannabis regulation similar to that adopted in Uruguay, with efforts are underway by numerous municipalities to establish such models of production and supply.

In general, more countries around the world are now moving to legalise, or decriminalise, the use of marijuana for both medical and recreational use. And while a regulated market certainly seems a while off in the UK and Ireland, I think that this would be sensible, given that the drug is low-risk and can actually have positive effects when used medicinally (refer to other blog posts!). Perhaps in the future people will look back on this time with a sort of wonder and bemusement, in the same way we think about prohibition. Only time will tell.

Comments

  1. JeanieOctober 13, 2020 at 11:35 AM

    Interesting. So it's not simply a case of stopping it being illegal - it's quite complicated to legalise it - still lots of rules and regs.

    ReplyDelete

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