Cannabis Policy
Overview
Recreational marijuana or "cannabis" is legal in 24 states and marijuana-related arrests in the U.S. are at a more than half-century low. However, policies that create a loosely regulated, legal, for-profit recreational cannabis industry along the lines of the tobacco industry are posing new threats of increasing addiction and other health hazards in the US. And although medical cannabis products may help some patients, marketing claims of its benefits are greatly exaggerated and sometimes actively harmful. SNAP disseminates research findings that can help policymakers avoid both the damage of aggressive punishment and aggressive corporate promotion of recreational and medical cannabis.
Scope of the Problem:
From 1992 to 2022 the per capita rate of using cannabis every day or nearly every day increased 15-fold.
Extremely high potency forms of cannabis have emerged in multiple countries in recent years and are increasingly used.
Heavy cannabis use, particularly during adolescence, raises risk of poor academic performance, problems with memory and concentration, and psychotic disorders (e.g., schizophrenia).
States that have legalized recreational cannabis use have generally done so on corporate-friendly lines, raising the risks of increased problematic consumption and regulatory capture.
With liberalization, the damage done to users by cannabis possession arrests may drop, but the damage done by the drug itself may increase.
Cannabis-impaired driving is now almost as common as alcohol-impaired driving.
Challenges in Policy and Practice:
Cannabis legalization regimes in the U.S. have largely ignored the painful lessons of loose regulations, such as those that have governed the tobacco and alcohol industries. This has allowed unrestricted potency and aggressive product promotion.
States that failed to expect the cannabis price collapse caused by legalization have been surprised by reduced tax revenue. Low cannabis prices will also likely increase consumption over time.
Current regulations usually allow legal cannabis to be packaged like children’s candy and sold in brownies, gummies, chocolates, and cakes, broadening their appeal and potentially increasing their addictiveness.
Creating a corporate cannabis industry is often incorrectly portrayed as the only way to dramatically reduce cannabis-related arrests, when in fact this can be accomplished by simply decriminalizing or legalizing personal possession and use.
Although barriers to medical cannabis research have greatly decreased, evidence remains insufficient to recommend cannabis or its components for most medical indications.
