Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know

Abstract

Here is a book by four leading experts who collaborate in answering questions about marijuana and its possible legalization. Everything you might want to ask, answered crisply and accurately! And the four authors give, at the end, their separate recommendations: they differ, but they've agreed on 149 answers. A remarkable collaboration, and a pioneering format worth emulating." -THOMAS SCHELLING, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Should marijuana be legalized? Opinion couldn't be more evenly divided; about 50 percent of Americans say "yes." But what does "legalization" mean? Making it legal to use marijuana? Grow it? Sell it? Advertise it? If sales are legal, under what regulations? And with what taxes? Different forms of legalization might have very different results.Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know provides readers with a nonpartisan primer covering everything from the risks and benefits of using marijuana to the current laws, to the open scientific questions. The authors discuss the likely costs and benefits of legalization at the state and national levels and explore the "middle ground" of policy options between prohibition and commercialized production. The book also considers the personal impact of marijuana legalization on parents, heavy users, medical users, employers, and even drug traffickers.

Issues in the implementation and evolution of the commercial recreational cannabis market in Colorado

“…Researchers have identified high frequency users and youth as most vulnerable to the negative consequences of legal cannabis (Caulkins, Hawken, Kilmer, & Kleiman, 2012). A public health approach would aim to reduce cannabis consumption and as far as possible prevent youth from early initiation to cannabis user careers.…”

Industrial Hemp in North America: Production, Politics and Potential

“…There are numerous papers defending the viewpoint for legalization of industrial hemp in the USA, but none can be found with an opposing viewpoint. Pro-hemp Law Review discussions can be found from the following states: CA [104,105]; CO [106]; IN [107]; KY [108,109]; MO [110]; ND [111]; OK [112]; and OR [113]. There is a consistent enthusiastic theme throughout all these discussions: legalizing industrial hemp in the USA is in the public interest.…”

Building the data infrastructure to evaluate cannabis legalization

“…Conducting a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of cannabis policy changes will be difficult, as it requires putting a value on cannabis intoxication [9]. There is neither agreement about the absolute value of intoxication nor the sign [10]. Assuming that total expenditure is a proxy for the value of intoxication can be misleading for dependence-inducing substances since some users struggle to reduce their consumption.…”