Pubdate: Fri, 12 Aug 2016
Source: Journal-Pioneer, The (CN PI)
Copyright: 2016 Journal-Pioneer
Contact:  http://www.journalpioneer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2789
Author: Desmond Colohan
Note: Dr. Desmond Colohan is P.E.I.'s Chief Coroner and has a keen 
interest in responsible public health policy.

'LOW' AND 'SLOW' WHEN IT COMES TO LEGALIZATION

At the request of the Canadian Medical Association, I recently 
completed a survey on the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.

Should marijuana be legalized for recreational use? It's hard to 
argue against the responsible use of a plant product which has been 
around for thousands of years and has been used as a social and 
personal lubricant since time immemorial.

History teaches us that mankind has always sought respite from the 
stresses of daily life through chemicals, and that much of the time 
we have turned to psychoactive plants for relief.

Marijuana was legal in Canada until 1932, when it was criminalized in 
the face of a mounting concern over the dangers of psychoactive drugs 
like heroin, cocaine and alcohol. Interestingly, it wasn't 
criminalized in the United States until 1937.

As I have pointed out in previous articles, the regular use of 
cannabis is not without risk. Like other psychoactive drugs, such as 
alcohol and tobacco, risk increases with consumption.

The more you use and the longer you continue to consume, the greater 
your risk of suffering accidental injury, brain damage, mental health 
issues, various cancers or heart disease. Putting other risk factors 
aside, the less you consume, the lower your risk becomes. There is no 
level of consumption at which increased risk falls to zero.

That having been said, as with other psychoactive drugs, the relative 
increase in risk needs to be considered before deciding to indulge or 
abstain. If your risk of becoming addicted to cannabis is about 10 
per cent, are you prepared to accept that risk?

If you use heroin regularly, your risk of addiction is about 23 per 
cent, while if you use tobacco, your risk of becoming hooked is about 
32 per cent. If you start using cannabis regularly when you're just 
15 years old, your risk of developing schizophrenia is over 4 1/2 
times higher than if you wait until you're 18. Using marijuana 
regularly at any age still doubles your risk, albeit from a non-user 
lifetime likelihood of 1% to a user likelihood of two per cent.

If marijuana is legalized, who should produce it and where should it 
be sold? Our current legal psychoactive drugs, tobacco and alcohol, 
are highly regulated and restrictions are placed on where you can 
purchase, how much you can purchase and how old you must be to purchase.

The consequences of illicit sale, purchase, over-consumption and 
damage resulting from consumption are spelled out in regulation and 
the criminal code. Marijuana should be treated no differently.

There has to be federal and provincial/territorial control over the 
supply, distribution and sale of cannabis for recreational use. Until 
we get a better handle on the societal implications of legalization, 
I think that it should initially be grown by and sold only through 
licensed facilities by knowledgeable health professionals, such as 
pharmacists, who should be available to counsel potential consumers.

I am not naive enough to believe that a black market in cannabis will 
cease to exist. As long as price and convenience of purchase are 
consumer drivers, there will always be people looking for the lowest 
price and the most convenient way to score their drug of choice, 
whether legally or illegally, but the vast majority of consumers will 
continue to purchase and consume legally and responsibly.

We are entering uncharted waters here and should be very mindful of 
the experience of other jurisdictions, such as the USA, Portugal and 
the Netherlands. As a wise mentor once told me, "start low and go slow."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom