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+--- Thread: Research Legalizing cannabis increases use and addiction – unless it is tightly controlled (/thread-20672.html)
Legalizing cannabis increases use and addiction – unless it is tightly controlled - C C - Jun 19, 2026
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1132109
INTRO: Removing criminal penalties for possessing cannabis for personal use, or introducing tightly controlled legalisation of cannabis, does not appear to increase levels of cannabis use. However, the commercial sale of cannabis is linked to increased health risks, with large-scale for-profit markets – such as those seen in the US and Canada – resulting in more potent products and higher rates of addiction.
These findings are reported in a study published on Wednesday, June 17, in The Lancet Psychiatry led by experts in addiction and mental health at the University of Bath in the UK, together with an international team from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Co-authors Professor Tom Freeman, and Dr Rachel Lees Thorne, both from the Department of Psychology at Bath, say their findings highlight the distinct effects of different policy approaches globally.
Cannabis policies are rapidly evolving worldwide. Today, they range from strict prohibition to fully commercialised legalisation. The new paper examines global changes in cannabis policy between 2000 and 2025, and how these are linked to changes in cannabis use, cannabis addiction and other psychiatric disorders.
In the UK, cannabis is a Class B controlled drug, with a maximum penalty for possession of up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. A 2025 report by the London Drugs Commission, commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, titled The Cannabis Conundrum: a way forward for London, proposed decriminalising possession of cannabis for recreational use.
Such a change could shift the focus from managing cannabis through criminal law enforcement to healthcare, and address the disproportionate level of cannabis policing found in black communities. The findings of this new global analysis indicated that when other countries had decriminalised cannabis, there was little evidence for changes in cannabis use.
Other countries have gone a step further by legalising cannabis. The first country in the world to do this was Uruguay, which today has a tightly controlled approach where adults can access a restricted range of cannabis products from pharmacies (with limits on their potency) as well as cannabis social clubs, or by growing cannabis themselves.
In Uruguay, along with other contexts in which cannabis legalisation is tightly controlled, there is little evidence of changes in cannabis use.
By contrast, in many US states and in Canada, cannabis is legally sold through well-established, for-profit markets, making cannabis widely available. In these commercialised legal markets, use of the drug has increased. Cannabis potency has also increased since the legalisation of commercial sales, along with rates of addiction among adults, characterised by people struggling to stop using the drug despite negative effects on daily life... (MORE - no ads)
RE: Legalizing cannabis increases use and addiction – unless it is tightly controlled - stryder - Jun 19, 2026
Overall Cannabis usage can be noted for psychosis but the terminology rarely reflects what it truly means.
While a person uses the substance often in substantial quantity, the effect is they can be open to misinterpretation of facts, delusional thinking and even to the point of acting out on those delusions. A country with their people "off their faces" on cannabis would lead to people being malleable by social media manipulation and public hysteria (It's a gateway towards defacto mind-control whether done by a state, a cult or a hate group).
I guess it's dependent on if a country is willing to have a psychosis state or not.