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SUMMARY:Recent cannabis policy experiments in the USA and Uruguay: What ar
 e they and what are their implications? - Wayne Hall\, Professor of Addict
 ion Policy\, National Addiction Centre\, Kings College London\, and Centre
  for Youth Substance Abuse Research University of Queensland
DTSTART:20141021T120000Z
DTEND:20141021T130000Z
UID:TALK55304@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lucy Lloyd
DESCRIPTION:This paper describes the recent proposals to legalise recreati
 onal cannabis use in the USA and Uruguay and places them within a historic
 al context of the past 50 years. It begins with a broad brushstroke accoun
 t of trends in cannabis use among young people in developed countries like
  Australia\, the United Kingdom and the United States. It then explains wh
 y de facto decriminalisation came to be the predominant policy response to
  cannabis in these countries. It explains the constraints on domestic drug
  policies imposed by the international drug control treaties before outlin
 ing the policy experiments that have increasingly challenged the internati
 onal drug conventions on cannabis. These include: de jure decriminalisatio
 n of cannabis possession and use in some states in the USA\, Australia and
  Europe\; de facto legalisation of retail cannabis sales in the Netherland
 s\; the passage of referenda establishing liberally defined “medical mar
 ijuana” schemes in some US states in the 1990s and 2000s\; the passage o
 f referenda that legalised recreational cannabis use in Colorado and Washi
 ngton state in 2012\; and the decision of the Uruguayan government to lega
 lise cannabis in 2013. The focus of my talk is on answering the following 
 questions about these policy experiments:  what might we expect to happen 
 to cannabis use and problems related to cannabis use after legalisation? W
 hat constitutional and other complications do the state laws raise for the
  US Federal government? What implications do these policy experiments have
  for the future of the international drug control treaties? How may the ou
 tcomes of these experiments affect cannabis policies in other developed co
 untries? 
LOCATION:Herchel Smith building\, Forvie Site\, ground floor Seminar Room
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