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Cannabinoids: The Case for Legal Regulation That Permits Recreational Adult Use

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Substance and Non-Substance Related Addictions

Abstract

Over the past several years, cannabinoids and policies regulating their use have received increasing popular and scientific attention. The issues are vast. They range from whether marijuana is medically useful to whether enforcement of existing laws that regulate its recreational use is carried out in a racially discriminatory manner. There is a dearth of single articles addressing these diverse issues. Thus, the objectives of this chapter are to explore a broad range of cannabis-related issues and to make policy recommendations that respect individuals’ civil liberties and enhance public health and safety. Evidence is presented from scientific studies investigating the medical utility of marijuana, as well as from opinion polls querying US citizens about whether the drug should be legally available for adult recreational consumption. Also included is a review of the literature on synthetic cannabinoids, exploring their medical and scientific utility and other issues related to the recreational use of these substances. The chapter concludes with two primary policy recommendations: (1) the legalization of recreational marijuana use should be expanded in the United States; and (2) free, anonymous drug safety testing services should be implemented nationwide.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For simplicity sake, we use the terms cannabis and marijuana interchangably throughout the chapter.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Grifell’s time and contributions to this project were made possible thanks to the Rio Hortega grant (CM18/00168) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and Fondo Social Europeo (FSE) and a grant from the Open Society Foundation (OR2018-44135). The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Tiesha T. Gregory, Christopher Medina-Kirchner, Marc Grifell Guàrdia & Carl L. Hart

  2. Department of Psychological Sciences, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia

    Kate O’Malley

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallés and IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Bellaterra, Spain

    Marc Grifell Guàrdia

  4. Division on Substance Abuse, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA

    Carl L. Hart

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  1. Tiesha T. Gregory
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Correspondence to Carl L. Hart .

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  1. Department of Psychiatry New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Evaristo Akerele

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Gregory, T.T., O’Malley, K., Medina-Kirchner, C., Guàrdia, M.G., Hart, C.L. (2022). Cannabinoids: The Case for Legal Regulation That Permits Recreational Adult Use. In: Akerele, E. (eds) Substance and Non-Substance Related Addictions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84834-7_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84834-7_13

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