Global Cannabis Commission Report

[Dragonfan]

The Beckley Foundation Policy Programme - Reacting to concerns that international drug policy debates are insufficiently informed by the growing evidence base, the Beckley Foundation directs a programme of research and policy analysis. In spite of 40 years of prohibition, drugs are cheaper, purer and more widely avaialble than ever before. The Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme (BFDPP) was set up to develop a scientifically-evaluated evidence base, and provide a rigorous, independent review of current global drug policy. It aims to cast light on the current dilemmas facing policymakers within governments and international agencies, and to work with them in order to promote objective and open debate on the effectiveness, direction and content of future drug policies. The Policy Programme supports evidence-based policies that are effective in reducing drug related-harms, whilst also respecting individual freedoms.

 

The Beckley Foundation's Global Cannabis Commission

The Cannabis Commission is an international group of academics and experts in drug policy analysis, commissioned by the Beckley Foundation to produce a Report on cannabis policy in a global perspective. The Report will be finished by September 2008, in time to be taken into account in the global debate on drug policies in connection with the 2009 UNGASS evaluation. It will provide a comprehensive overview of the evidence that a policymaker at the national or international level will need to know in considering how to move beyond the present stalemate on cannabis policy. This report contains:

• an opening chapter giving an overview of the global history of cannabis in recent decades, touching on patterns and trends in use and the cultural politics of cannabis, and laying out the plan for the rest of the book;

• an up-to-date review of what is known about the health consequences of cannabis use. This includes harms to physical and mental health, and performance effects, such as on driving. The extent of danger of cannabis is considered in a public health perspective, in a comparative frame with harms from other drugs – tobacco, alcohol, opiates, etc;

• the evidence on the effects of the current system of prohibition and control, including the size and organization of the illicit cannabis market, the costs and effectiveness of efforts to eliminate the market through police and criminal justice systems, and the effects of criminalization on users and their families;

• a review of policy initiatives at national and sub-national levels of reform within the international prohibition system intended to mitigate adverse effects. These include initiatives to decriminalize cannabis possession, to reduce penalties for use or possession, to divert to treatment or other handling, and to license and tolerate use, such as with the Dutch coffee shop system;

• an assessment of the effects of reforms within the system. The available evidence is summarized on the effects of different reforms on amount and patterns of use and harm, and on secondary adverse consequences of arrest and other enforcement;

• a review of the potential means for altering the present international convention status of cannabis, to allow controlled availability for adult use in national or sub-national regulatory regimes. While there are a variety of possible paths available for an individual country or a group of nations, primary attention is given to those most likely to be feasible in terms of norms of international law and of political realities. The chapter includes consideration of concrete provisions in a possible new Convention on cannabis, on the model of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control;

• a final chapter drawing conclusions and making recommendations on possible paths forward, towards more effective and just policies on cannabis, at both national and international levels.

We believe that this Report with its Conclusions and Recommendations, could serve as a blueprint for the development of future evidence-based drug policies. We therefore hope that its analysis and its findings will reach as large an audience as possible, and that, in due course, a more beneficent cannabis policy may be developed.

This project has been convened by Amanda Neidpath, Director of the Beckley Foundation

Cannabis Commission Report - 226 pages

 

Conclusions and Recommendations - 8 pages

[WantDaChronic]

atm i dont have the time to read the 8 pages of recommendations, but from the sounds of things they are taking an unbiased approach towards cannabis looking at pretty much every aspect of it you can think of. unfortunately for us though because it is an unbiased study about cannabis it'll come out looking pro pot which when politics is involved means the study is worthless pro drug properganda

 

lets just hope that even though there is a 99.9999% chance the study will be pro pot that policitians see the study for what it is and take the advice given at the end of it

[Dragonfan]

atm i dont have the time to read the 8 pages of recommendations, but from the sounds of things they are taking an unbiased approach towards cannabis looking at pretty much every aspect of it you can think of. unfortunately for us though because it is an unbiased study about cannabis it'll come out looking pro pot which when politics is involved means the study is worthless pro drug properganda

 

lets just hope that even though there is a 99.9999% chance the study will be pro pot that policitians see the study for what it is and take the advice given at the end of it

 

Surely one would think, applying a modicum of logic and unbiased reason , that this report cannot be ignored . . . it has after all been put together by world 'experts' in their fields, collaborating and reporting on the latest scientific evidence . . . mmm, then again, we're talking Pollies here aren't we , the majority of whom are so fond of their loquacious rhetoric [and the sound of their own voices] they can't see the wood for the trees with their own agendas and their heads firmly up their collective butts . . . but one can only hope that something will give and that they will be unable to keep ignoring the ground swell of pro cannabis 'propaganda' [world wide], nor the scientific evidence that keeps revealing itself, nigh on a daily basis, nor do they have the right to keep denying the sick and ailing a medicine that is truly helpful when all else fails . . . . . . one day

If the almighty herb were discovered today they'd be yelling from the mountain tops that this is the best medicine since aspirin and penicillen were first discovered!!

[WantDaChronic]

If the almighty herb were discovered today they'd be yelling from the mountain tops that this is the best medicine since aspirin and penicillen were first discovered!!

shit if pot were discovered today it wouldnt just be the best medicine since asprin and penicillin were discovered, it would be known as the saviour of man and would literally become the future of medicine

[freddie]

shit if pot were discovered today it wouldnt just be the best medicine since asprin and penicillin were discovered, it would be known as the saviour of man and would literally become the future of medicine

Funny you should say that. Here's a quote from the economist..

The medical uses of cannabis

 

Apr 27th 2006

From The Economist print edition

 

IF CANNABIS were unknown, and bioprospectors were suddenly to find it in some remote mountain crevice, its discovery would no doubt be hailed as a medical breakthrough. Scientists would praise its potential for treating everything from pain to cancer, and marvel at its rich pharmacopoeia—many of whose chemicals mimic vital molecules in the human body. In reality, cannabis has been with humanity for thousands of years and is considered by many governments (notably America's) to be a dangerous drug without utility. Any suggestion that the plant might be medically useful is politically controversial, whatever the science says. It is in this context that, on April 20th, America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement saying that smoked marijuana has no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

 

The statement is curious in a number of ways. For one thing, it overlooks a report made in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), part of the National Academy of Sciences, which came to a different conclusion. John Benson, a professor of medicine at the University of Nebraska who co-chaired the committee that drew up the report, found some sound scientific information that supports the medical use of marijuana for certain patients for short periods—even for smoked marijuana. …

http://www.economist.com/science/displayst...tory_id=6849915