Medicinal cannabis policies and practices around the world

Although cannabis remains a prohibited substance worldwide, in recent decades a series of political, legislative and judicial processes in various parts of the world have given rise to various forms of legal regulatory regimes for the medical and therapeutic use of the plant. This trend seems to be consolidating in the Americas, in particular in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the largest number of available experiences is concentrated, and where the regulatory changes are occurring successively, in a sort of domino effect.

Although this progress is not exclusive to Latin America, and is still far from being a won battle, there is a clear shift in the global drug policy debate, particularly on cannabis. A variety of factors played a role here, including the growing availability of scientific evidence, the inability of the international drug control regime to accommodate and respond appropriately to new evidence, the emergence of a new public health paradigm in the area of drugs, the adoption of alternative policies at local level – sometimes at the expense of the international legal framework – and the growing perception that the costs of the ‘war on drugs’ far outweigh its benefits. (IDPC – International Drug Policy Consortium, 23.04.2018)

https://idpc.net/publications/2018/04/medicinal-cannabis-policies-and-practices-around-the-world