International Journal of Drug Policy
Volume 21, Issue 4 , Pages 261-264 , July 2010

Cannabis policy: Time to move beyond the psychosis debate

  • Daniel Werb

      Affiliations

    • British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, Canada
    • School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    • ,
  • Benedikt Fischer

      Affiliations

    • Centre for Addictions Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
    • ,
  • Evan Wood

      Affiliations

    • British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, Canada
    • Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author at: Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 1Y6, Canada. Tel.: +1 604 806 9116; fax: +1 604 806 9044.

Received 4 November 2009 ,Revised 26 February 2010 ,Accepted 11 March 2010.

References 

  1. Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs . Cannabis: Classification and public health. London: Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs; 2008;
  2. Bagley B. Drug trafficking, political violence and US policy in Colombia in the 1990s. Mama Coca. 2001;
  3. Degenhardt L, Chiu W-T, Sampson N, Kessler RC, Anthony JC, Angermeyer M, et al. Toward a global view of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. PLoS Medicine. 2008;5(7):1053–1067
  4. Degenhardt L, Hall W. Is cannabis use a contributory cause of psychosis?. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 2006;51(9):556
  5. Degenhardt L, Hall W, Lynskey M. Testing hypotheses about the relationship between cannabis use and psychosis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2003;71(1):37–48
  6. Degenhardt L, Hall WD, Lynskey M, McGrath J, McLaren J, Calabria B, et al. Should burden of disease estimates include cannabis use as a risk factor for psychosis?. PLoS Medicine. 2009;6(9):7
  7. Degenhardt L, Hall WD, Roxburgh A, Mattick RP. UK classification of cannabis: Is a change needed and why?. The Lancet. 2007;370(9598):1541–11541
  8. Drug Free America Foundation [WWW page]. (2008). URL http://www.dfaf.org. St. Petersburg, Florida: Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.
  9. Drug Policy Alliance. (2010). Accessed at: www.drugpolicy.org.
  10. Fainaru S, Booth W. Cartels face an economic battle. The Washington Post. 2009, October 7;
  11. Fergusson DM. Cannabis and psychosis: Two kinds of limitations which attach to epidemiological research. Addiction. 2004;99(4):512–513
  12. Fergusson DM, Boden JM, Horwood LJ. Cannabis use and other illicit drug use: Testing the cannabis gateway hypothesis. Addiction. 2006;101(4):556
  13. Fischer B, Ala-Leppilampi K, Single E, Robins A. Cannabis law reform in Canada: Is the saga of “promise, hesitation and retreat” coming to an end?!. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice. 2003;45(3):265
  14. Fischer B, Rehm J, Hall W. Cannabis use in Canada: The need for a ‘public health’ approach. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2009;100(2):3
  15. Fischer B, Single E, Room R, Poulin C, Sawka E, Thompson H, et al. Cannabis use in Canada: Policy options for control. Policy Options. 1998;19:34–38
  16. Fligiel SEG, Roth MD, Kleerup EC, Barsky SH, Simmons MS, Tashkin DP. Tracheobronchial histopathology in habitual smokers of cocaine, marijuana, and/or tobacco. Chest. 1997;112(2):319–326
  17. Frisher M, Crome I, Martino O, Croft P. Assessing the impact of cannabis use on trends in diagnosed schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005. Schizophrenia Research. 2009;113(2–3):123–128
  18. Garfield CF, Chung PJ, Rathouz PJ. Alcohol advertising in magazines and adolescent readership. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 2003;289:2424–2429
  19. Greenwald G. Drug decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for creating fair and successful drug policies. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute; 2009;
  20. Hall W, Degenhardt L. Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use. The Lancet. 2009;374(9698):1383–1391
  21. Hibell B, Andersson B, Bjarnason T, Ahlstrom S, Balakireva O, Kokkevi A, et al. The ESPAD Report 2003: Alcohol and other drug use among students in 35 European countries. Stockholm: The European Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs; 2004;
  22. Hill AB. A short textbook of statistics. London: Hodder & Stoughton; 1977;
  23. Ioannidis JPA. Why most published research findings are false. Neonatal Intensive Care. 2006;19(3):42
  24. Johnston LD, O’Malley PM, Bachman JG, Schulenberg JE. Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2007. Volume I: Secondary school students. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse; 2008;[No. NIH 08-6418A]
  25. Joyce G. Vancouver gripped by gang war. The Canadian Press; 2009, March 6;
  26. Kalant H. Adverse effects of cannabis on health: An update of the literature since 1996. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. 2004;28(5):849–863
  27. Laski O. Extra troops fail to staunch Mexico bloodshed. Agence France-Presse; 2009, July 3;
  28. Lloyd C. UK cannabis classification: A flawed debate. The Lancet. 2008;371(9609):300–301
  29. Macleod J, Smith GD, Hickman M. Does cannabis use cause schizophrenia?. The Lancet. 2006;367(9516):1055–11055
  30. McCambridge J. A case study of publication bias in an influential series of reviews of drug education. Drug and Alcohol Review. 2007;26(5):463
  31. McLaren J, Silins E, Hutchinson D, Mattick R, Hall W. Assessing evidence for a causal link between cannabis and psychosis: A review of cohort studies. International Journal of Drug Policy. 2009;10(1):10–19
  32. Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG. The PRISMA Group (2009) Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. BMJ. 2009;339:b2535
  33. Moore LD, Elkavich A. Who's using and who's doing time: Incarceration, the war on drugs, and public health. American Journal of Public Health. 2008;98(5):782
  34. Moore THM, Zammit S, Lingford-Hughes A, Barnes TRE, Jones PB, Burke M, et al. Cannabis use and risk of psychotic or affective mental health outcomes: A systematic review. The Lancet. 2007;370(9584):319–328
  35. Morral AR, McCaffrey DF, Paddock SM. Reassessing the marijuana gateway effect. Addiction. 2002;97(12):1493
  36. Nadelmann E. Think again: Drugs. Foreign Policy. 2007;23:18–24
  37. NORML . National organization for the reform of marijuana laws. 2009;Retrieved September 30, 2009, from www.norml.org
  38. ONDCP . Marijuana potency. Washington, D.C.: Office of National Drug Control Policy; 2007;
  39. Palmgreen P, Lorch EP, Stephenson MT, Hoyle RH, Donohew L. Effects of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's Marijuana Initiative Campaign on high-sensation-seeking adolescents. American Journal of Public Health. 2007;97(9):1644
  40. Partnership for a Drug-Free America. (2010). Accessed at: www.drugfree.org.
  41. Pearson H. A hard habit to break. Nature. 2004;430:2
  42. Rasmussen DW, Benson BL, Sollars DL. Spatial competition in illicit drug markets: The consequences of increased drug war enforcement. Review of Regional Studies. 1993;123:219
  43. Reinarman C, Cohen PDA, Kaal HL. The limited relevance of drug policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and in San Francisco. American Journal of Public Health. 2004;94(5):836
  44. Resignato AJ. Violent crime: A function of drug use or drug enforcement?. Applied Economics. 2000;32(6):681
  45. Reuter . How much can treatment reduce national drug problems. Addiction. 2006;101(3):341
  46. Room R, Fischer B, Hall W, Lenton S, Reuter P. Cannabis policy: Moving beyond stalemate. Oxford: Beckley Foundation Global Cannabis Commission; 2008;
  47. Sabet KA. Commentary: The price we’ll pay for legalizing pot. Los Angeles Times. 2009, June 7;
  48. Saffer H, Chaloupka F. The effect of tobacco advertising bans on tobacco consumption. Journal of Health Economics. 2000;19(6):1117–1137
  49. Smit F, Bolier L, Cuijpers P. Cannabis use and the risk of later schizophrenia: A review. Addiction. 2004;99(4):425–430
  50. Tashkin DP. Does smoking marijuana increase the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2009;180(8):
  51. Taylor DR, Fergusson DM, Milne BJ, Horwood LJ, Moffitt TE, Sears MR, et al. A longitudinal study of the effects of tobacco and cannabis exposure on lung function in young adults. Addiction. 2002;97(8):1055–1061
  52. Tetrault JM, Crothers K, Moore BA, Mehra R, Concato J, Fiellin DA. Effects of marijuana smoking on pulmonary function and respiratory complications: A systematic review. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2007;167(3):221
  53. UNODC . World Drug Report 2005. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; 2005;
  54. UNODC . World Drug Report 2008. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; 2008;

PII: S0955-3959(10)00057-5

doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2010.03.003

International Journal of Drug Policy
Volume 21, Issue 4 , Pages 261-264 , July 2010

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution