Cannabis studies, reports & testimonies

Drug policy in the Netherlands

The Dutch policy material cited by the original page described a strategy that distinguished between cannabis and drugs considered to carry greater health risks. It emphasised limiting health and social harms, separating drug markets and judging policy partly by patterns of serious drug use.

National Task Force on Cannabis

The Australian National Task Force examined health effects, patterns of use, public opinion and legislative options. The legislative review considered five broad approaches: total prohibition, prohibition with civil penalties, decriminalisation of possession, regulated legal availability and unrestricted availability.

Judge Francis Young: marijuana rescheduling

DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young considered evidence about accepted medical use and safety under medical supervision in Docket No. 86-22. His recommended ruling concluded that marijuana had medical utility and could be used safely under medical supervision.

National Academy of Sciences policy analysis

The National Research Council's Committee on Substance Abuse and Habitual Behavior reviewed cannabis policy and discussed a system in which states could experiment with different forms of control, rather than relying exclusively on federal criminal penalties.

The CCGUIDE archive characterised the report as placing significant weight on education, informal social controls and the possibility of regulated approaches.

Shafer Commission

The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, chaired by former Pennsylvania governor Raymond P. Shafer, reviewed cannabis policy during the Nixon administration. It recommended that possession for personal use should not be a criminal offence and also proposed removing criminal penalties for casual, non-commercial transfers of small amounts.

LeDain Commission

Canada's Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs examined drug use, law and public policy. The cannabis material was notable for treating users as citizens whose views and experiences should form part of policy development, and for considering alternatives to criminal punishment for possession.

Wootton Report

The Hallucinogens Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence, chaired by Baroness Wootton, reviewed the pharmacological, clinical, social and legal evidence on cannabis. It concluded that the penalties then attached to cannabis possession and supply were too severe and recommended that possession of a small amount should not normally lead to imprisonment.

Read the UKCIA archive copy →

LaGuardia Committee Report

New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia commissioned medical, social and psychological research into marijuana use. The resulting report challenged several widely publicised claims of the period, including assertions that cannabis use inevitably caused addiction, progression to other drugs or criminal behaviour.

Panama Canal Zone investigations

Military and civilian investigators examined marijuana use among US personnel in the Canal Zone. The historical archive records that investigators did not recommend prohibition of sale or use on the evidence they had gathered at the time.

Open the surviving archive →

Indian Hemp Drugs Commission

The Government of India convened a seven-member commission after questions in the House of Commons about hemp-drug use. It took evidence from more than a thousand witnesses across India and produced a multi-volume report examining medical, social, religious, legal and administrative questions.

The commission generally favoured regulation and taxation over prohibition and distinguished moderate use from excessive use.