This article is intended to give an overview of several arguments for and against drug prohibition.
Lester Grinspoon was an American psychiatrist and long-standing associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School best known for his groundbreaking works on the science and social policy of cannabis, psychedelics and other drugs, and for his commitment to changing harmful drug policies. He concurrently served as a senior psychiatrist at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, Massachusetts for 40 years. Grinspoon was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychiatric Association. He was founding editor of The American Psychiatric Association Annual Review and Harvard Mental Health Letter. Grinspoon was editor of Harvard Mental Health Letter for fifteen years.
In the United States, the non-medical use of cannabis is legalized in 18 states and decriminalized in 13 states as of June 2021. Decriminalization refers to a policy of reduced penalties for cannabis offenses, typically involving a civil penalty for possessing small amounts, instead of criminal prosecution or the threat of arrest. In jurisdictions without penalty the policy is referred to as legalization, although the term decriminalization is sometimes used for this purpose as well.
The use of cannabis in New Zealand is regulated by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, which makes unauthorised possession of any amount of cannabis a crime. Cannabis is the fourth-most widely used recreational drug in New Zealand, after caffeine, alcohol and tobacco, and the most widely used illicit drug. In 2001 a household survey revealed that 13.4% of New Zealanders aged 15–64 used cannabis. This ranked as the ninth-highest cannabis consumption level in the world.
Cannabis is a plant used in Australia for recreational, medicinal and industrial purposes. In 2019, 36% of Australians over the age of fourteen years had used cannabis in their lifetime and 11.6% had used cannabis in the last 12 months.
Cannabis in Palau is illegal, but reports indicate the drug is widely produced and consumed on the island nation. Palau is a former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands of the United States which gained independence in 1994, and has a population under 20,000.
Cannabis in Madagascar is illegal, but is produced and consumed domestically.
Cannabis in Latvia is illegal for recreational and medical purposes, but production of industrial hemp is permitted.
In Thailand, cannabis, known by the name ganja, is regulated under the Narcotics Act. As of 2021, medical cannabis can be purchased from licensed retailers, and households can grow up to six plants for personal use. While parts of the cannabis plant that contain less than 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which includes the roots, stalks, stems, and leaves, can be sold or used for food or cosmetics, recreational use remains prohibited and the flowers and seeds must be sent to state medical facilities.
The list includes and details significant events that occurred in the global history of national-level implementations of, or changes made to, laws surrounding the use, sale, or production of the psychoactive drug cannabis.
The manufacture, possession, and consumption of cannabis in Trinidad and Tobago is decriminalized.
Cannabis refugee is a term, primarily used in the United States and Canada, referring to people who have moved from one location to another due to cannabis prohibition laws, motivated either by a desire to have legal access to cannabis to treat medical conditions for themselves or their family, or to legally consume cannabis for any other reason. A related term is trimmigrant, which refers to migrant workers who travel to the Emerald Triangle during the summer to work on the seasonal marijuana harvest.
White Widow is a balanced hybrid strain of Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa that was created and developed by Shantibaba whilst he worked at the Greenhouse Seed Company.
Cannabis in Liechtenstein is illegal with severe penalties for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.
Cannabis in Djibouti is illegal with penalties for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Offenders may be fined or receive up to five years in prison. Use of cannabis in Djibouti is low due to poor conditions for cultivation and the local preference for the legal drug khat.
Cannabis in Tajikistan is illegal with severe penalties for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Punishments include up to five years in prison for possession and capital punishment or 25-year sentence for sale.
Cannabis in Eritrea is illegal with severe penalties for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Offenders are imprisoned up to twelve months and fined up to 50'000 Nkf for possession. Conditions for cultivation in Eritrea are poor.
Cannabis in Haiti is illegal with severe punishments for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.
Cannabis in Kiribati is illegal with severe punishments for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. A 2011 survey of young people, found that 6.8% of males and 1.6% of females had ever used cannabis.
Cannabis in Tuvalu is illegal with severe punishments for the production, sale, and possession of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Due to the nation's high development index, illegal substance abuse effectively does not exist in Tuvalu and there were no reports of drug-related crimes on Tuvalu in 2019 or 2020.
