This letter is in response to the recent editorial “Watching Canada’s Experiment with Legal Cannabis.”1
Use of cannabis increased rapidly during prohibition (20-fold since 1972, as in the United Kingdom).2 So legalization is not flawed just because use continues to rise somewhat after legalization.
Remember also that legalization may reduce the black market for cannabis and related crime, and may protect youth from being recruited by criminal gangs. A large number of young people will no longer get a criminal record for cannabis possession and will not be labelled as criminals. This is very important.
Cannabis could also replace alcohol and more dangerous substances.
We have to consider a lot more than just any increase in use.
Footnotes
Competing interests: None declared.
References
- 1.Kelsall D. Watching Canada’s experiment with legal cannabis. CMAJ 2018;190:E1218. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Hickman M, Vickerman P, MacLeod J, et al. Cannabis and schizophrenia: model projections of the impact of the rise in cannabis use on historical and future trends in schizophrenia in England and Wales. Addiction 2007;102:597–606. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]