The health unknowns of the cannabis legalisation

Illegal cannabis has led to a cascade of health and social harms that could be addressed through legalisation, an expert panel has found.

But whether that would happen is unknown.

The panel also says that getting the regulatory framework wrong and allowing big business to take over could exacerbate social inequities the current system enables.

The panel, led by the Prime Minister’s chief science advisor Juliet

Gerrard, released its work this morning to help inform the public debate in the lead-up to the referendum in September. The work has been peer-reviewed nationally and internationally.

The referendum, which is part of the Labour-Greens confidence-andsupply agreement, is about legalising cannabis for recreational use.

Keeping it illegal is meant to deter its use, but the panel says most Kiwis have used it — 15 per cent of New Zealanders have used it in the past year, increasing to 29 per cent for those aged 15 to 24 — and a third of those who use it do so at least once a week. Nor is criminal punishment much of a deterrence — 95 per cent of users “either continue or increase their cannabis use after arrest or conviction”.

And t “systemic racism” disproportionately affects Ma¯ ori, young people and males.

“Cannabis being illegal isn’t stopping people using it and, as a result, society experiences substantial social and health harms related to cannabis,” the panel says.

The panel compares the proposed legal framework with the status quo, looks at what has happened overseas where cannabis has been legalised, dives into how it can be harmful and considers how legalisation might increase health services.

The panel says that harm exists regardless of its legal status, and legalisation has “the potential to undercut the illegal market for cannabis, help reduce cannabisrelated harm through regulated product safety, better facilitate intervention and treatment services, and separate access to cannabis from the illegal market for more harmful drugs”.

“Whether this plays out in reality is yet to be determined, as legalisation reforms in other places have not been in place for long enough for a full evaluation of long-term impacts.”

Overseas data should be interpreted with caution, the panel warned, because each jurisdiction has its own unique regulatory framework.

Broadly speaking, use among adults overseas has increased moderately in the short-term, and there is no clear impact on groups