Tom Decorte

Simon Lenton

Chris Wilkins

Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the world. Over the past couple of decades, several Western jurisdictions have seen reforms in, or changes to, the way cannabis use is being controlled, departing from traditional approaches of criminal prohibition that have dominated cannabis use control regimes for most of the twentieth century. While reform is stalled at the international level, the last decade has seen an acceleration of legislative and regulatory reforms at the local and national levels, with countries no longer willing to bear the human and financial costs of prohibitive policies. Furthermore, legalization models have been implemented in US states, Canada and Uruguay, and are being debated in a number of other countries. These models are providing the world with unique pilot programs from which to study and learn. This book assembles an international who’s who of cannabis scholars who bring together the best available evidence and expertise to address questions such as: How should we evaluate the models of cannabis legalization as they have been implemented in several jurisdictions in the past few years? Which scenarios for future cannabis legalization have been developed elsewhere, and how similar/different are they from the models already implemented? What lessons from the successes and failures experienced with the regulation of other psychoactive substances (such as alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and “legal highs”) can be translated to the effective regulation of cannabis markets? This book may appeal to anyone interested in public health policies and drug policy reform and offers relevant insights for stakeholders in any other country where academic, societal or political evaluations of current cannabis policies (and even broader: current drug policies) are a subject of debate.

Experiences, Lessons and Scenarios

Legalizing Cannabis

Sarah Slock

The Taming of Cocaine II is the result of a follow-up study of 77 cocaine and crack users from the original ethnographic study after 6 years. This longitudinal design adds to the value of earlier findings about cocaine use in the life course of individuals. This book offers further detailed information about the rules drug users live by, the development of drug use patterns, and different cohort, age and period effects on behavioural and attitudinal changes. The findings of a longitudinal study such as this also provide a sounder basis for underpinning drug policies and treatments.

A 6-year Follow-up Study of 77 Cocaine and Crack Users

The Taming of Cocaine II

For the majority of its history, the cultivation of cannabis did not stand out, at least compared to the cultivation of other illegal plants. Cannabis plantations, like coca bush or opium poppy plantations, were typically large in size, grown by local farmers in a handful of developing (producing) countries, processed and then exported to industrial (consuming) nations. While cocaine and heroin are still produced in a handful of developing countries, cannabis cultivation is increasingly universal. From Europe to the Americas and Oceania, import substitution in cannabis markets has been noticed in almost every developed country around the world, with a notable aversion for discrimination. Geographical, technological, cultural and economic factors help to explain why (indoor and outdoor) domestic cultivation is well established, and why the nature and extent of cultivation varies so dramatically across the western, developed nations. As we start the second decade of the 21st century, the new cannabis industry continues to fascinate both casual and academic observers of the drug scene. Researchers around the world have become increasingly interested in the phenomenon, aiming to describe, and potentially explain, the rapid switch from importation to domestic production in their own countries. In bringing together some of the world's leading experts on cannabis cultivation this book contains sixteen chapters that take an interdisciplinary look at global trends in cannabis cultivation. It will serve as an exemplar for wider discussions of key theories and concepts relating to the spread not just of cannabis cultivation, but also of illegal markets more generally, the actors that operate within these markets and the policies and practices that are employed in response to developments within these markets.

Global Trends in Cannabis Cultivation and its Control

World Wide Weed

Wouter Vanderplasschen

Charlotte De Kock

Julie Schamp

Ilse Derluyn

Bert Hauspie

Dirk Jacobs

Muriel Sacco

Professionals working in addiction care in both Belgium and other European countries have identied a discrepancy between the prevalence of problem substance use among people with a migration background, and the presence of people with a migration background in treatment facilities. However, little research is currently available on this topic. This study attempts to ll the knowledge gap in existing research by exploring the patterns of substance use, expectations and treatment needs of people with a migration background in four Belgian target groups (the Turkish community in Ghent; the Eastern European communities in Ghent; the Congolese community in Brussels; and asylum applicants, refugees and undocumented migrants). Substance users with a migration background can be particularly dicult for researchers to reach, so community researchers were recruited to interview substance users from within their own network. Over 200 people were interviewed. The project was carried out in close collaboration with the respective communities and with stakeholders in addiction care. This book presents the ndings of the study, together with recommendations for health care policy and the practice of addiction care. It also details the explorative and qualitative community-based participatory research design (CBPR) that was used to facilitate the study.

A Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Project

Substance use among people with a migration background.

De huidige cannabiswetgeving draagt niet bij tot de volksgezondheid. Het aantal verslaafde gebruikers loopt niet terug. Drugsmisbruik richt bij steeds meer mensen onherstelbare schade aan. Tegenstanders beweren vaak dat een regulering van cannabis zal leiden tot een banalisering of commercialisering van de drug. Tegelijk moeten ze wel erkennen dat de huidige wetgeving nauwelijks positieve effecten heeft. Hoe kunnen we daarmee verder? 0In dit boek bundelen drie internationale experten hun ervaring om een concreet en toepasbaar scenario uit te werken voor een volwaardig cannabisbeleid. Daarbij is onder meer aandacht nodig voor voorlichting en onderzoek, maar ook voor het onderscheid tussen recreatief en medicinaal gebruik. Want alleen een vooruitstrevende benadering maakt een betere grip op het cannabisgebruik in België mogelijk.

Cannabis onder controle. Hoe?

Gary W. Potter

Martin Bouchard

As we start the second decade of the 21st century, the new cannabis industry continues to fascinate both casual and academic observers of the drug scene. Researchers around the world have become increasingly interested in the phenomenon, aiming to describe, and potentially explain, the rapid switch from importation to domestic production in their own countries. Bringing together some of the world's leading experts on cannabis cultivation, this book takes an interdisciplinary look at global trends in cannabis cultivation. It serves as an exemplar for wider discussions of key theories and concepts relating to the spread not just of cannabis cultivation, but also of illegal markets more generally, the actors that operate within these markets and the policies and practices that are employed in response to developments within these markets.

Tom Decorte

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