Center for Addiction and Mental Health calls for legalization of marijuana.

[FunctionalOlfactio]

CAMH calls for legalization of marijuana
Current system 'failing to prevent or reduce the harms' of pot use, researcher says

CBC News Posted: Oct 09, 2014 6:23 AM ET Last Updated: Oct 09, 2014 11:57 AM ET



Marijuana should be legalized with strict controls to curb its use and social harms, the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health says.

Canada’s current system of cannabis control fails to prevent or reduce harms associated with its use, Dr. Jurgen Rehm, director of social and epidemiological research at CAMH, said Thursday as the hospital released a new policy document on the drug.

"Cannabis sales should be regulated," Rehm said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.

"There should be a government monopoly on sales. There should be a minimum age for purchase and consumption. There should be controls on availability. There should be … a ban on marketing, advertising and promotion and plain packaging."

Rehm estimated that about 40 per cent of Canadians have used pot at least once in their lifetimes, and 10 per cent have done so in the past year. But its use is associated with harms to health, including:

Respiratory diseases such as lung cancer.
Problems with healthy development from high levels of use by youth.
Risk of death or injury from motor vehicle collisions.
Dependence and mental-health problems.

Given the risk of harm, CAMH believes any reforms on marijuana control need to include a strong focus on prevention and harm reduction interventions.

Anyone who buys pot in criminal markets doesn't know about its potency or quality. Meanwhile, enforcement of cannabis laws costs Canadians $1.2 billion a year, the centre said.

While decriminalization has some advantages over prohibition, it doesn’t address health harms of cannabis use as strict regulations would, Rehm said, adding the strict regulations proposed set the model apart from other legalization approaches, such as in the U.S.

In May, the Canadian Public Health Association also issued a policy statement saying "Canada needs a public health approach to managing illegal psychoactive substances that de-emphasizes criminalization and stigma in favour of evidence-based strategies to reduce harm."

Ian Culbert, the group’s executive director, said a different approach is needed than the current "war on drugs."

"Canadian society isn't overnight going to embrace this idea of legalization and regulation, so it's a conversation that we have to have," he said.

CAMH’s recommendations also included:

A framework to address and prevent cannabis-impaired driving.
Better access to treatment.
Investment in education and prevention.

Experts from CAMH started to develop the new policy framework last year.

Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/camh-calls-for-legalization-of-marijuana-1.2793460

 

[neversickanymore]

They want to go from banning it to having a monopoly on it. With control boards to control consumption. What ever that means, control freaks.

Good news for Canada I guess.

 

[FunctionalOlfactio]

Whatever drugs we are talking about. We should have the choice of what to use or abstain from too. With compassionate respect of self determination and accurate information on consequences more people will chose non-drug-dependent lifestyles.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Before I turned twenty-one, it was always easier for me to get weed than alcohol or even cigarettes. Even heroin too. Funny how that works... also funny how it's still kinda the same, only diff is now alcohol is just as easy to get too, just doesn't come with the risk of going to jail for a felony like heroin does

 

[my3rdeye]

They want to go from banning it to having a monopoly on it. With control boards to control consumption. What ever that means, control freaks.

Good news for Canada I guess.

That's just the Canuck knee jerk let the government do it mentality. The government of Canada is not going to grow the nations weed, they will just tax it. The blueprint now is for private companies to grow the medical. If it went full legal its not going to all of a sudden be all government run. This is not a government agency in charge of policy anyway. Their plan will never happen no mater who gets elected.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health are interesting as they don't profit from kids getting sent for pot treatment by a judge and are somewhat less biased. If they got some balls and got behind cannabis replacement for hard drugs therapy I might respect them more.

 

[ro4eva]

For an addiction treatment facility which I've had mandatory dealings with, and which made it awfully clear that - at the time at least - they were pro-drug war and abstinence-based bullshit, I find this turn of events to be very unexpected; pretty much unprecedented really.

I have heard however that lately they have begun to increasingly adopt a harm reduction based addiction medicine strategy instead of opting to remain with the unrealistic, oppressive, prejudiced, condescending, patronizing status quo. Thank goodness, because we need the "experts" to agree with us as well if we are to have a solid chance of doing away with the "just say no" quick-fix exercise in futility.

Nevertheless, it does seem like the super nannies of morality are at it again with respect to sensing an opportunity to freakishly control what should never be theirs to control - or perhaps I'm overreacting.

Whatever the case may be, I do know for certain that Steven Harper, Rona Ambrose, and the rest of the "Progressive Conservatives" have got to go if we are to have any hope in Canada of actually having a government which respects democratic values such as majority votes - something which Harper has repeatedly and deliberately ignored without much effort whenever it was concerning possible reform of laws which conflict with his demented moral compass. And this is precisely why I cannot stand the arrogant twat who had much more than anything/everything he ever needed handed to him on a silver platter by his wealthy ancestors.