Citation

Queirolo R. World Psychiatry 2020; 19(2): 195-196.

Affiliation

Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, World Psychiatric Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/wps.20742

PMID

32394563

Abstract

Since 2012, when Colorado and Washington State started the path to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes, the trend has been growing. Uruguay became in 2013 the first country to legalize the whole process: from production to distribution, commercialization and consumption. Canada followed suit in 2018. By January 2020, eleven states in the US, Uruguay and Canada have legal access to recreational cannabis for adults, and other countries have started the legalization process or the discussion about it, as is the case of Luxembourg and New Zealand.

Each of these experiences of legalizing cannabis is different from the others1. Legalization in the US and Canada has followed a deeply commercial model, while legalization in Uruguay is heavily regulated and controlled by the government2. Even in Canada, there are significant differences in the set of rules that each province has opted to follow while legalizing. For example, in some Canadian territories the minimum age for use is 18 years, while in others it is 21.

The features of each legalization policy model might have a different impact on the expected outcomes. Some regulatory policies might increase certain legalization adverse effects, while decreasing other neg­ative impacts. For example, the Uruguayan cannabis legislation forbids the selling of cannabis edibles, which might reduce intoxications among minors but increases the percentage of users that smoke cannabis.

So, it is important to compare the effects of the different models of cannabis legalization and not assume that all the experiences will produce the same results. In other words, it is important to take advantage of the existing variance of policy design. The way in which you regulate might lead to different effects on public health and the other objectives that the policy is designed for ...

Keywords: Cannabis impaired driving

Language: en