this commentary to the editorial of hajizadeh argues that the economic, social and health consequences of legalizing cannabis in canada will depend in large part on the exact stipulations (mainly from the federal government) and on the implementation, regulation and practice of the legalization act (on provincial and municipal levels). a strict regulatory framework is necessary to minimize the ...

notwithstanding a century of prohibition, marijuana is the most widely used illicit substance in canada. due to the growing public acceptance of recreational marijuana use and ineffectiveness of the existing control system in canada, the issue surrounding legalizing this illicit drug has received considerable public and political attentions in recent years. consequently, the newly elected liber...

BACKGROUND In November 2012, Washington State and Colorado became the first states in the United States to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults, and Uruguay became the first country to allow the cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of marijuana. One possible consequence of these changes is increased adolescent marijuana use. Parents may mitigate this adverse consequence; how...

AIM To examine briefly the (i) rationales for two policy proposals in the United States to make it mandatory for cigarettes to contain very low levels of nicotine and to legalize cannabis for recreational use by adults; and (ii) possible lessons that participants in each policy debate may learn from each other. METHOD We briefly describe the diverging policies towards cannabis and tobacco in ...

An editorial in this issue describes a cannabis policy framework document issued by a major Canadian research centre, calling for legalization of non-medical use under strict controls to prevent increase in use, especially by adolescents and young adults who are most vulnerable to adverse effects of cannabis. It claims that such a system would eliminate the severe personal, social and monetary ...

Last fall, voters in Colorado and Washington approved measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. In the near future, residents of these states who are 21 years of age and older will be able to purchase marijuana at retail stores (Donlan, 2013). Although it can be challenging to predict future behavior, Mark Kleiman, a prominent drug policy expert, described what might be characteriz...

PURPOSE The state-level legalization of medical marijuana has raised concerns about increased accessibility and appeal of the drug to youth. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of medical marijuana legalization across the United States by comparing trends in adolescent marijuana use between states with and without legalization of medical marijuana. METHODS The study utilized ...