In its December issue, the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry published an essay by psychiatrist Stephen Kisely, who divides his time between Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, titled, “The Case for Policy Reform in Cannabis Control.” Kisely’s essay is so full of logic and common sense that the best thing to do is just quote it at length:

“The lack of evidence for prohibition is highlighted by the fact that penalties bear little relation to the actual harm associated with cannabis. The Runciman Report, commissioned by the Police Federation in the United Kingdom, no less, concluded that both alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than cannabis; nonetheless, there is no suggestion that prohibition should play a part in controlling their use. … [Read more →]

David Murray, the alleged “chief scientist” at the White House drug czar’s office, seems determined to end his tenure in a blaze of dishonesty. In a just-published article in New Scientist that examines the excellent Beckley Foundation Global Cannabis Commission report, Murray touts recent declines in U.S. teen marijuana use and claims, “In the absence of prohibition, it would have been difficult to achieve that.”

That’s nonsense, as we’ve already pointed out. As many U.S. teens currently smoke marijuana as smoke cigarettes, which are legal for adults. Since 1991, teen marijuana use has increased while teen cigarette smoking has dropped by nearly half. [Read more →]

That’s the astonishing finding from the latest Monitoring the Future survey, but strangely, it wasn’t mentioned by White House drug czar John Walters or in the initial news reports. 13.8 percent of 10^th graders reported smoking marijuana in the past 30 days, while just 12.3 percent smoked cigarettes. For 8^th and 12^th grades, cigarette use still narrowly exceeded marijuana, but the gap narrowed to insignificance.

The Associated Press reported, “[T]he White House says the sustained trendline is the key.” Makes sense to me.  According to the new survey, current (i.e. past 30 days) marijuana use has nearly doubled among  8^th graders since 1991, from 3.2 percent to 5.8 percent, with big increases among 10^th and 12^th graders,  too. [Read more →]

Okay, I’m a bit behind in my reading, but a study published last month in the journal Addiction casts an interesting light on the so-called “gateway effect” — the idea that use of one drug, usually marijuana, somehow leads to use of others.

Gateway associations have regularly been found between tobacco and marijuana: Young people who use one are pretty consistently more likely to use the other as well. But does tobacco cause kids to smoke marijuana, marijuana cause kids to use tobacco, or are both tendencies the result of other factors entirely?

The new study, by researchers in Queensland, Australia, and St. Louis, suggests that genetics, not the effects of any particular drug, are at the heart of these associations. [Read more →]

“If something is not legal, you can’t regulate it very effectively.”

            – Prof. Robin Room, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne

On October 2, the Global Cannabis Commission, a group of top scientists commissioned by the Beckley Foundation, issued its groundbreaking report, “Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate.” Your faithful correspondent was able to attend the daylong seminar in which the report was discussed, held in the distinctly imposing Moses Room of the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster.

This is a highly condensed summary of the 175-page report. I wrote a lengthier summary here, and the full document can be downloaded here.

The report was written by five leading marijuana and drug policy researchers: Benedikt Fischer of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland, and three Australians: Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland, Simon Lenton of the National Drug Research Institute at the Curtin University of Technology, and Robin Room of the University of Melbourne. A number of other important researchers joined the discussion (and contributed advice and research to the report).

Some highlights: [Read more →]