Jacob Bell
New Member
A new study by a U.C. Berkeley professor says the United States could learn a lot from the system of "quasi-legal" marijuana sales in the Netherlands.
In an article published in the journal Addiction, Robert MacCoun said the Dutch system of marijuana shops may have modestly increased the number of people smoking pot, but it doesn't seem to have made them smoke more or move on to harder drugs.
Many U.S. critics have blasted the "War on Drugs" as expensive and destructive, filling prisons yet not stopping drug use. Yet few places in America have embraced full legalization of marijuana or harder drugs.
MacCoun, a professor in the University of California, Berkeley 's law school and public policy school, crunched numbers from Holland about cannabis use, legality and treatment since the 1970s with other European countries and the United States.
Holland, with some 700 retail marijuana outlets, sells between 50 and 150 metric tons of cannabis per year in licensed shops. Though the number of shops has changed over the years (there once were 1,179 shops), that hasn't had a dramatic effect on drug use.
"The available evidence suggests that the prevalence of cannabis use among Dutch citizens rose and fell as the number of coffeeshops increased and later declined, but only modestly," MacCoun wrote.
Prohibitions on growing cannabis have helped keep prices high and that's kept use lower than might be expected in a truly unrestricted market, the report said.
"The Dutch system serves as a nuanced alternative to both full prohibition and full legalization," MacCoun said.
Full or partial legalization of marijuana has long been debated in the Bay Area, and MacCoun's research will no doubt add to the discussion. The influence of marijuana on the economy has provoked plenty of debate.
One recent study even estimated that some 400,000 authorized growers use about 3 percent of the California's electricity for their business.
Oakland is home to "Oaksterdam University," a school that teaches people about the marijuana industry, and the city has several cafes that legally sell pot to people for medical use.
In recent months, the East Bay city of Albany has blocked a proposed medical marijuana dispensary.
Dutch kids seem to start smoking pot around age 13, the same as in the United States, the report said. The legal age to buy cannabis in Holland was 16 until 2005, when it was raised to 18.
Changes towards more conservative government in the Netherlands may cut down on marijuana tourism -- as many as a quarter of the 4 million to 5 million tourists there visit marijuana shops, the report said -- because the cannabis shops may be changed to clubs for Dutch citizens only.
Though MacCoun admits that comparing two nations as different as Holland and the United States is a bit like comparing apples and oranges (or oranges and apples, in this case), nevertheless he said: "if we want to identify more effective policies, we need to make comparisons across jurisdictions."
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: bizjournals.com
Author: Steven E.F. Brown
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: American City Business Journals, Inc.
Website: Legalize it! says U.C. Berkeley marijuana study, or sort of
In an article published in the journal Addiction, Robert MacCoun said the Dutch system of marijuana shops may have modestly increased the number of people smoking pot, but it doesn't seem to have made them smoke more or move on to harder drugs.
Many U.S. critics have blasted the "War on Drugs" as expensive and destructive, filling prisons yet not stopping drug use. Yet few places in America have embraced full legalization of marijuana or harder drugs.
MacCoun, a professor in the University of California, Berkeley 's law school and public policy school, crunched numbers from Holland about cannabis use, legality and treatment since the 1970s with other European countries and the United States.
Holland, with some 700 retail marijuana outlets, sells between 50 and 150 metric tons of cannabis per year in licensed shops. Though the number of shops has changed over the years (there once were 1,179 shops), that hasn't had a dramatic effect on drug use.
"The available evidence suggests that the prevalence of cannabis use among Dutch citizens rose and fell as the number of coffeeshops increased and later declined, but only modestly," MacCoun wrote.
Prohibitions on growing cannabis have helped keep prices high and that's kept use lower than might be expected in a truly unrestricted market, the report said.
"The Dutch system serves as a nuanced alternative to both full prohibition and full legalization," MacCoun said.
Full or partial legalization of marijuana has long been debated in the Bay Area, and MacCoun's research will no doubt add to the discussion. The influence of marijuana on the economy has provoked plenty of debate.
One recent study even estimated that some 400,000 authorized growers use about 3 percent of the California's electricity for their business.
Oakland is home to "Oaksterdam University," a school that teaches people about the marijuana industry, and the city has several cafes that legally sell pot to people for medical use.
In recent months, the East Bay city of Albany has blocked a proposed medical marijuana dispensary.
Dutch kids seem to start smoking pot around age 13, the same as in the United States, the report said. The legal age to buy cannabis in Holland was 16 until 2005, when it was raised to 18.
Changes towards more conservative government in the Netherlands may cut down on marijuana tourism -- as many as a quarter of the 4 million to 5 million tourists there visit marijuana shops, the report said -- because the cannabis shops may be changed to clubs for Dutch citizens only.
Though MacCoun admits that comparing two nations as different as Holland and the United States is a bit like comparing apples and oranges (or oranges and apples, in this case), nevertheless he said: "if we want to identify more effective policies, we need to make comparisons across jurisdictions."
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: bizjournals.com
Author: Steven E.F. Brown
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: American City Business Journals, Inc.
Website: Legalize it! says U.C. Berkeley marijuana study, or sort of
