Policymakers will have to think carefully about pricing, taxation and providing discounts for buying in bulk. Else legalisation may not deliver a substantial tax windfall after all.
Legal cannabis use rose in Europe during the pandemic.
Alamy
The ACT legislation conflicts with federal laws, which still prohibit the possession of cannabis. It’s unclear how police will respond and whether users could still be charged.
Two cannabis plants per person and four per household will be legal in the ACT from January 31.
Esteban Lopez/Unsplash
Most people assume drugs are illegal because they are dangerous, but the reasons aren’t related to their relative risk or harm.
No one really knows for certain what the market potential is for cannabis, much less for edibles, but growth opportunities are palatable.
(Shutterstock)
If South Africa’s argument in court is that marijuana causes harm, it deserves to lose. The real question it should ask is whether criminal prohibition is the effective way forward.
It is one thing for a jurisdiction to decide that it no longer supports the prohibition of cannabis; it is another to figure out how to establish and regulate a legal cannabis market. Uruguay became the…
When government revenue is included, legalising appears to trump the status quo.
Philippa Willitts
About one-quarter of Australians support the legalisation of cannabis. And advocates often point to the potential of raising tax revenue from sales as part of their argument. But there has been limited…
We appear to be on the cusp of a major change in the laws surrounding the use and sale of cannabis. Several nations have now decriminalised usage, and the first steps toward full legalisation have taken…
It is easy to despair of the low quality of public debate on drugs policy in the UK. Some of the loudest voices reflect fixed views and make opportunistic use of any fragment of evidence that happens to…
One argument for legalisation is it will move the problem away from police and the criminal justice system, where it currently dominates resources.
AAP Image/Simon Mossman
We should all be concerned about our laws on illegal drugs because they affect all of us – people who use drugs; who have family members using drugs; health professionals seeing people for drug-related…
Professor of Health Policy & Management, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy & Senior Fellow, Leonard D Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, University of Southern California