The status of cannabis in the UN drug conventions is controversial. It is now scheduled among the most dangerous substances. How and why did cannabis in the conventions? Does it belong there? What are the options to review the status of cannabis according to current scientific data? Is making cannabis subject to a control regime similar to harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco a solution?
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Five biggest lies from anti-pot propagandist Kevin Sabet
It is time to bust the myths Sabet has been perpetuating
Sunil Kumar AggarwalAlterNet (US blog)
Thursday, August 8, 2013Kevin Abraham Sabet-Sharghi, Ph.D., aka Kevin Sabet, has been a headline-grabbing right-winger ever since his U.C. Berkeley days—where he did not study science or medicine despite his current appointment as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Florida. His most recent incarnation as a co-founder of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) follows a stint in the Obama White House on its drug policy staff from 2009-2011. His personal website claims he is the “quarterback” of a new anti-drug movement, boasting that he’s been “quoted in over 15,000 news stories.”
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Latin America Drug Policy Dialogue 2013 Maldonado (Uruguay)
The ninth Latin America informal drug policy dialogue was devoted to "dilemmas in regulation of the cannabis market." The two-day dialogues were structured around seven sessions: (1) The Uruguayan proposal for cannabis regulation: dilemmas and challenges. (2) Current models of regulation: United States, Spain and the Netherlands. (3) The fine art of regulation: state monopoly vs. self-regulated market which works better and for whom? (4) Addressing cross-border differences and market mobility. (5) Tensions between cannabis regulation and international drug-control treaties: What options do governments have? (6) Cannabis reforms under way in Latin America. (7) Strategy and paths to reform: scenarios and next steps.
Download the Executive Summary (PDF)
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The argument for cannabis as medicine: Will ideology or science prevail?
Dr. Marcus DayInternational Drug Policy Consortium IDPC (UK)
Monday, August 05, 2013In Saint Lucia and throughout the Caribbean, we at the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition have observed the therapeutic value of cannabis (marijuana) to address a number of mental and physical health issues. This has included cannabis as an alternative to alcohol consumption for problematic drinkers, and cannabis use as a substitute for smoking crack cocaine. I have also witnessed first-hand the ways that cannabis use can reduce community violence.
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Coffee Shops and Compromise
Separated Illicit Drug Markets in the Netherlands
Jean-Paul Grund & Joost BreeksemaGlobal Drug Policy Program (Open Society Foundations)
July 2013Building on a long history and culture of tolerance, the Dutch responded to illicit drugs with decades of pragmatic measures free of judgment. A central element of modern Dutch drug policy was a crucial decision to establish a legal and practical separation of cannabis—judged to pose "acceptable" risks to consumers and society—from hard drugs associated with unacceptable risk. This policy effectively decriminalized possession and use of cannabis and opened the door for tolerated outlets for small-scale cannabis sales that eventually took the form of the well-known Dutch "coffee shops."
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Models for the legal supply of cannabis
Recent developments
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
Perspectives on drugs
May 2013Three United Nations Conventions provide the international legal framework on drug control, instructing countries to limit drug supply and use to medical and scientific purposes. Yet, debate continues on the decriminalisation, or even legalisation, of drugs, particularly cannabis. Models under development for the legal supply of cannabis are described in this analysis, as well as some of the questions they raise.
Part of the ‘Perspectives on drugs’ (PODs) series, launched alongside the annual European Drug Report, these designed-for-the-web interactive analyses aim to provide deeper insights into a selection of important issues.
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Pot smokers might not turn into dopes after all
Revisiting data casts doubts on link between heavy cannabis use and declining IQ
Nature
Monday, January 14, 2013Cannabis rots your brain — or does it? Last year, a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggested that people who used cannabis heavily as teenagers saw their IQs fall by middle age. But a study published today — also in PNAS — says that factors unrelated to cannabis use are to blame for the effect. Nature explores the competing claims. (See also: New Research Questions Marijuana’s Impact in Lowering IQ)
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Why marijuana should be legal for adults
David L. Nathan, clinical associate professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical SchoolCNN (US)
Wednesday, January 9, 2013Forget the antiquated dogma and judge pot prohibition on its own merits. If you still believe that cannabis should be illegal, then you must logically support the criminalization of alcohol and tobacco, with vigorous prosecution and even imprisonment of producers and consumers. Does that sound ridiculous? Then you must conclude that the only rational approach to cannabis is to legalize, regulate and tax it.
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Cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs
A dispensary-based survey of substitution effect in Canadian medical cannabis patients
Philippe Lucas, Amanda Reiman, Mitch Earleywine, Stephanie K. McGowan, Megan Oleson, Michael P. Coward & Brian ThomasAddiction Research & Theory
November 20, 2012This article examines the subjective impact of medical cannabis on the use of both licit and illicit substances via self-report from 404 medical cannabis patients recruited from four dispensaries in British Columbia, Canada. The aim of this study is to examine a phenomenon called substitution effect, in which the use of one product or substance is influenced by the use or availability of another.
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Prevalence of daily cannabis use in the European Union and Norway
D. Thanki, J. Matias, P. Griffiths, A. Noor, D. Olszewski, R. Simon and J. VicenteEuropean Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
Thematic Paper
November 2012This report brings together, for the first time in Europe, an integrated overview of the prevalence of intensive cannabis use, defined as daily or almost daily cannabis use (use on 20 or more days in the month preceding survey). Self-reported data regarding frequency of cannabis use from large, probabilistic, nationally representative samples of general population surveys from 20 countries, representing more than 83 % of the population of EU and Norway, were collected through two rounds of ad hoc data collection in 2004 and 2007 and through a routine, standard data collection instrument since 2010.
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Comparing marijuana legalization measures in Oregon, Colorado, and Washington State
Oregon Joins Colorado and Washington in voting on marijuana legalization this election
National Cannabis Coalition
Sunday, July 15, 2012History was made as the Oregon Secretary of State announced that the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act turned in enough valid signatures to qualify for the 2012 ballot. Oregon joins Washington and Colorado in voting for marijuana legalization this year, the first time in history three U.S. states will put the legalization question to voters. Here is a look at the three legalization measures to be put before the voters in the November 2012 election.
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