Emb arg oed u ntil 00 .01 - 26 th Ja nu ary 20 10
Cannabis P olicy: Mo ving Beyo nd Stale mate NEW STUDY CALLS FOR A MORE RATIONAL APPROACH TO CANNABIS CONTROL
'That which is prohibited cannot easily be regulated'
A new book published by the Beckley Foundation and Oxford University Press has concluded that cannabis prohibition policies have comprehensively failed and that a new approach to cannabis policy is urgently needed. The book entitled Cann abis P olic y: Movi ng Beyon d Stal emate, published on the 25th of January, was researched and written by a group of the world's leading drug policy analysts1. It gives an overview of the latest scientific evidence surrounding cannabis and calls for an evidence-based approach to policy that seeks to minimize the harms associated with use of that drug. The book highlights current scientific evidence on the health consequences of cannabis use; it shows that while cannabis use does cause harms to some of those who use it, those harms at the population level are modest in comparison with alcohol or cocaine. It demonstrates that the vast numbers of arrests for possession of cannabis in countries such as the UK, the US and Switzerland have had minimal deterrent effect. The authors propose a less punitive approach by governments and international agencies. Policy has changed hardly at all since the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was ratified, with present international treaties inhibiting decriminalisation or legalisation and preventing any thoroughgoing reforms of national cannabis regimes. The UN estimates that up to 190 million people use cannabis2, representing 4% of the global adult population, compared with 1% of the population, which uses all other illegal drugs together. Thus cannabis is by far the most used controlled drug in the world, making it the mainstay of the War on Drugs. In the United States alone there were an estimated 829,625 arrests for cannabis violations
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Peter Reuter, Robin Room, Wayne Hall, Benedikt Fischer, Simon Lenton. UNDCP: Facing the challenge, UNDCP, Vienna World Drug Report, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997
in 20063. Despite these figures, cannabis continues to be largely ignored in international drug policy debates. This is what prompted Amanda Feilding, Director of the Beckley Foundation to convene the Global Cannabis Commission, which resulted in this book. The book concludes that since the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was ratified, patterns of cannabis consumption have altered fundamentally: in many nations in the developed world smoking cannabis is now almost a rite of passage among young people. A crucial conclusion of the book is that there appears to be no apparent link between cannabis policy - whether draconian or liberal - and prevalence of use. Thus liberal approaches would appear to be preferable, as they minimise the adverse consequences arising from the law and its enforcement. Current control regimes are regarded as being intrusive on privacy, socially divisive and expensive to maintain, helping to create illegal markets for cannabis. New research has identified the significance of the strength and chemical composition of cannabis in relation to psychological health. It has also demonstrated the importance of the balance found in natural cannabis between THC4,5 (which gets you high), and CBD6 (which acts as an anti-psychotic agent). Recently genetically modified strains such as 'skunk', which dominate the street markets in the UK, have been found to have increasingly high THC and extremely low amounts of CBD7. Illegal markets always tend towards the production of stronger strains of drugs. The book outlines alternative methods of minimising harms from cannabis use. Four possible routes of change are described, from depenalisation to decriminalisation to the possibility of partial legality and finally to a regulated market. The book also lays out ways in which a country can legally overcome the restrictions of the current international conventions, and provides a new Draft Framework Convention on Cannabis Control. This book is an invaluable guide in helping form future cannabis policy. A man da F eil din g, D irec tor of the B ec kley Foun dati on c ommented: "Can n abis P oli cy: Moving Bey on d Stal emate clearly shows that prohibitionist policies not only fail to meet their objectives but have inflicted significant social harms in the process.
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Annual Uniform Crime Report, Federal Bureau of Investigation's, 2006.
Delta 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol 5 Di Forti, M. Morgan, C. Dazzan, P. Pariante, C. High-potency cannabis and the risk of psychosis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 195: 488-491 (2009). 6 Cannabidiol 7 Potter DJ, Clark P, Brown, MB. Potency of D9-THC and Other Cannabinoids in Cannabis in England in 2005: Implications for Psychoactivity and Pharmacology. Journal of Forensic Sciences. Vol. 53:1 (2008).
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Criminalisation has not acted as a deterrent, whereas with a regulated market the product could be labelled for strength and chemical composition, thereby making it safer. Government could also control and tax its sale which would provide extra funding for education and treatment." Peter Reu ter, a Profess or of pub lic p olic y an d one of the b ook' s fiv e co- au th ors commented: "It is time for governments around the world to readdress cannabis policy and consider trying approaches that build on growing evidence that criminalisation of use is a minor deterrent and that it is necessary to develop responsible ways of managing supply rather than creating large illegal markets".
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N O TES T O E DITO RS : Th e Beckl ey F oun da ti on is a charitable trust founded in 1998 by Amanda Feilding, Lady Neidpath. It aims at investigating consciousness and its changing states from a multidisciplinary perspective. Through its Science Programme the Foundation initiates, develops and conducts world-class, pioneering research that will improve our scientific understanding of consciousness and provide practical information to help optimize health and well-being. The Foundation also conducts a Drug Policy Programme and is dedicated to providing a rigorous, independent review of global drug policy, aiming at reducing the harms associated with both the misuse of drugs and the policies that aim to control them. The intention of the Foundation is to help develop policies that are evidence-based and rational, rather than those that are ineffectual, due to being rooted in unsubstantiated ideology. The drug policy analysts who contributed to Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate are:
Rob in Room is a sociologist and Professor at the School of Population Health, University of Melbourne and is the director of the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research. He is also a professor at, and was the founding director of, the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University. Ben edik t F isch er is Professor and CIHR/PHAC Chair in Applied Public Health at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and the Director of Illicit Drugs, Public Health and Policy Unit at the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia (CAR-BC). Wayn e Hall is a Professor of Public Health Policy at the School of Population Health, University of Queensland. He has advised the World Health Organization on the health effects of cannabis use and other illicit drug related health issues. Si mon Len ton is an associate professor and Deputy Director at the National Drug Research Institute, Perth, Western Australia, and works as a Clinical Psychologist in private practice. 3
Peter R eu ter is a Professor at the School of Public Policy and in the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland; he is also a Senior Economist at RAND. He has served as a consultant to numerous US, European, and UN agencies and founded and directed RAND's multidisciplinary Drug Policy Research Center from 1989-1993.
A man da F eil din g, the founder and director of the Beckley Foundation, convened the Cannabis Commission and its Report, which developed into this book. The Foundation has produced over 30 much-cited academic reports, proceedings documents and briefing papers on key drug policy questions.
For further information please contact: Richard Elsen Byfield Consultancy Tel: +44 (0)207 256 4911 Mob: +44 (0)7886 757 307 Email:
[email protected] The Beckley Foundation Beckley Park - Oxford - www.beckleyfoundation.org
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