IT'S TIME FOR A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO MARIJUANA
USE

As The Vancouver Sun argued in a four-part series in 2005, Canada's
approach to marijuana policy has, for almost 90 years, ignored
virtually all evidence about the drug.

Yet if we're ever to develop a rational policy, we'll have to consider
the very solid evidence from around the world, and from our own
researchers here in Vancouver.

As for our history: Possession of marijuana was criminalized in 1923,
though no one knows why, since the matter wasn't debated -- indeed,
marijuana wasn't even mentioned -- in the House of Commons. This isn't
really surprising, though, since marijuana was not a popular drug at
the time, and didn't become popular until the cultural revolution of
the turbulent 1960s.

Within the next few years, we all learned a great deal about
marijuana, though it failed to inform our policy.

However, it did lead then-prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to
establish the Le Dain Commission, whose 1973 report remains one of the
best researched and most thorough documents on drug policy.

The commission's majority opinion recommended repealing the
prohibition on possession of marijuana and the prohibition on
cultivation for personal use. But in keeping with our habit of not
allowing research to inform our policy, the recommendations were
ignored by the Trudeau government.

Since then, more reports from around the world, including a
comprehensive one from our own Senate, have echoed the findings of Le
Dain -- specifically, that the criminal law has little or no effect on
drug usage rates, but acts as an enormous boost to the business of
organized crime. Or to put it more simply: The criminalization of
marijuana has failed to solve the problem for which it was ostensibly
promulgated, and yet has caused a massive new problem.

This has led many people to advocate for decriminalization, though
it's not always clear what decriminalization would look like. And just
as supporters of criminalization have often exaggerated the negative
effects of marijuana, many advocates for decriminalization have
ignored or downplayed them.

Yet marijuana, like any drug, has potential side-effects, some of
which can be serious. Some people do develop dependence, and marijuana
use also has been associated with more serious problems, such as the
development of mental disorders in vulnerable individuals. This would
suggest that marijuana use properly fits within a public health
framework rather than a criminal law model.

And that's exactly the recommendation of an international team of
specialists led by Simon Fraser University addiction expert Benedikt
Fischer.

Fischer argues that a public health approach would encompass
prevention strategies, risk-reduction strategies and better access to
treatment for problem users, and in the Canadian Journal of Public
Health, the team gives us an example of what a riskreduction strategy
would look like.

In its paper, which has been endorsed by the Canadian Public Health
Association, the team provides a set of lower-risk cannabis use
guidelines. These are much like the guidelines issued for alcohol, and
unlike the criminal law, are informed by the latest research.
Consequently, they address problems such as early onset use of
marijuana, daily use, and use during pregnancy and while driving.

Certainly, this is not a complete approach. But it is the beginning of
an evidence-based public health approach, and thereby represents a
significant step beyond simply advocating the elimination of
possession and cultivation laws.

And it is therefore something worth supporting, if we're genuinely
interested in addressing, and eliminating, the harms caused by both
drugs and drug laws.