Dr Benedikt Fischer: Canada provides lessons on legal cannabis
Keep the cannabis industry at bay
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
New Zealand is debating its cannabis policy, a process that led to legalisation of cannabis use and supply in Canada just last month. Since the two countries share many traits and values - and high cannabis use rates - they have many insights to share on these matters. In Canada, where cannabis reform had been discussed for decades, legalisation was advanced not principally to further the freedom to use drugs. Rather, the rationale included recognition that cannabis prohibition had done more harm than good, and that only through legalisation could cannabis be better controlled and regulated towards protecting public health and safety. Based on my involvement in Canadian science and policy here is a - certainly incomplete and subjective - list of thoughts.
