2015 Mar 30;350:h1668. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h1668.
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25825416
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Home » Need for a comprehensive national survey of cannabis use.
25825416
[PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
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No research of any real value has ever been carried out on this despite three million regular (at least once per month) users of cannabis, including an estimated one million using for medicinal reasons.
The cannabis market in the UK is worth £6 billion per annum and we consume more than three tons every day. £500 million is spent every year on law enforcement costs in a futile attempt to prevent cannabis use.
These figures are based on the British Crime Survey and surveys by IDMU at concerts, festivals, etc. They rely on people admitting to a criminal offence so are likely to be under rather than over estimates.
The only other survey, the Home Office Potency Study of 2008, is characterised by a complete lack of control or verification of random submissions from some police forces. It is worse than useless.
UK policy on cannabis is based on prejudice, propaganda, tabloid scare stories and the sort of inaccuracy we saw recently on the Channel 4 programme ‘Drugs Live’. Anything that can produce a more accurate and informative evidence base would be a good thing.
Based on such work that has been done in other countries, the results are likely to be unpopular with government and will likely show even higher use, lower harms from cannabis itself and greater harms from the policy of prohibition.
Three documents attached:
Taxing the UK Cannabis Market, IDMU, 2011
How To Regulate Cannabis in Britain, CLEAR, 2013
Medicinal Cannabis: The Evidence, CLEAR, 2015