While it is true that cannabis prohibition has impeded research intended to find therapeutic benefits, it has stimulated funding and approval of research intended to find harms.
Unlike new pharmaceutical drugs, cannabis has been used by millions of consumers for thousands of years. Our so-called “rigorous” drug-approval process is intended for new pharmaceuticals, not herbs and other traditional, natural health products.
There would be pros and cons to selling cannabis with alcohol. Liquor-store employees are generally unfamiliar with cannabis and unqualified to offer advice. People with drinking problems who have switched to cannabis might not appreciate the temptation of alcohol sales where they purchase cannabis. Great care must be taken when using cannabis and alcohol together.
Cannabis is an economic substitute for alcohol. When cannabis use goes up, alcohol use goes down, along with the related social costs such as addiction, crime, violence, disease, accidents and overdose deaths. What is not clear is whether selling the two substances together would encourage or negate this desirable “substitution effect.”
Matthew M. Elrod
Victoria
