Legalize and regulate marijuana, advocates Canadian mental health and addiction researchers

Canada’s largest mental health and addiction treatment and research facility has issued a report supporting the legalization and regulation of marijuana.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto says in their report that because over a third of Canadian young adults use marijuana, the nation’s current approach to the drug “exacerbates the harms.”

While not advocating for its use, nor wishing to moralize, CAHM says in their evidence-based report: “It’s time to reconsider our approach to cannabis control.”

Calling Canada’s current criminalization of pot “ineffective, costly,” and an example of “poor public policy,” CAMH posits that funds could be better spent if marijuana was approached as a health issue and not as a crime.

[youtube id=”xJ3AEd81W5E”]

However, CAMH isn’t seeking a more wide-open pot policy like in some U.S. states, such as Colorado. Rather, they are calling for its legalization and tightly controlled public sale much in the manner of alcohol and tobacco.

“Legalization, combined with strict health‐focused regulation, provides an opportunity to reduce the harms associated with cannabis use,” says CAMH.

Featured image: Doug Shutter/Shutterstock