Cannabis Issues

Cannabis: Issues for policy makers (EURAD, 2012) was produced with an EU operating grant under the Drug Prevention and Information Programme.

The paper reviews harm to users and to others, findings from drug policy research, and lessons from other public-health markets. It notes that regular cannabis use remains a minority pattern compared with alcohol and tobacco, but that commercialisation of those legal products shows how affordability, availability and acceptability drive consumption — dynamics likely to apply to a regulated cannabis market as well.

EURAD writes from a European perspective and describes its vision as a third way between a “war on drugs” and liberalisation: not against the person who uses drugs, and not driven by ideology, but by the welfare, health and dignity of individuals and society. The UN drug-control conventions remain, in this view, an important framework for cooperation, even where implementation is imperfect.

The full PDF is the version prepared for the web (cover and inner pages).