Current state of cannabis use, policies, and research across sixteen countries: cross-country comparisons and international perspectives.

Journal: Trends in psychiatry and psychotherapy

Volume: 44

Issue: Suppl 1

Year of Publication: 2022

Affiliated Institutions:  Department of Psychiatry, BKL Walawalkar Rural Medical College, Maharashtra, India. Educación de la Afectividad y Sexualidad Humana, Instituto Cultura y Sociedad, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Saint Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Clinic for Psychiatry, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. Department of Psychiatry, National Medical College, Birgunj, Parsa, Nepal. Elblandklinikum Radebeul Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Psychiatry Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, Catanzaro, Italy. Clinique Belmont, Genève, Switzerland. Department of Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Erenköy Mental Health and Neurological Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. Clinical Neurosciences Laboratory, Sidi Mohamed ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco. Department of Psychological Medicine, University Malaya Centre of Addiction Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Qazvin University of Medical Sciences Qazvin, Iran. Department of Psychology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Department of Psychiatry, Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Hospital, Rainawari, Kashmir, India. Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital, Eldoret, Kenya. Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. Faculty of Medicine, University of Vale do Taquari, Lajeado, RS, Brazil. Addictions Service, Department of Territorial Services, ASL Teramo, Teramo, Italy. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkla, Thailand.

Abstract summary 

Varying public views on cannabis use across countries may explain the variation in the prevalence of use, policies, and research in individual countries, and global regulation of cannabis. This paper aims to describe the current state of cannabis use, policies, and research across sixteen countries.PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for studies published from 2010 to 2020. Searches were conducted using the relevant country of interest as a search term (e.g., "Iran"), as well as relevant predefined keywords such as "cannabis," "marijuana," "hashish," "bhang "dual diagnosis," "use," "addiction," "prevalence," "co-morbidity," "substance use disorder," "legalization" or "policy" (in English and non-English languages). These keywords were used in multiple combinations to create the search string for studies' titles and abstracts. Official websites of respective governments and international organizations were also searched in English and non-English languages (using countries national languages) to identify the current state of cannabis use, policies, and research in each of those countries.The main findings were inconsistent and heterogeneous reporting of cannabis use, variation in policies (e.g., legalization), and variation in intervention strategies across the countries reviewed. European countries dominate the cannabis research output indexed on PubMed, in contrast to Asian countries (Thailand, Malaysia, India, Iran, and Nepal).Although global cannabis regulation is ongoing, the existing heterogeneities across countries in terms of policies and epidemiology can increase the burden of cannabis use disorders disproportionately and unpredictably. There is an urgent need to develop global strategies to address these cross-country barriers to improve early detection, prevention, and interventions for cannabis use and related disorders.

Authors & Co-authors:  Ransing de la Rosa Pereira-Sanchez Handuleh Jerotic Gupta Karaliuniene de Filippis Peyron Sönmez Güngör Boujraf Yee Vahdani Shoib Stowe Jaguga Dannatt da Silva Grandinetti Jatchavala

Study Outcome 

Source Link: Visit source

Statistics
Citations :  Anthony JC, Lopez-Quintero C, Alshaarawy O. Cannabis epidemiology: a selective review. Curr Pharm Des. 2017;22:6340–6352.
Authors :  20
Identifiers
Doi : e20210263
SSN : 2238-0019
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Cannabis
Other Terms
Cannabis;global health;legalization;policies;research
Study Design
Study Approach
Country of Study
Kenya
Publication Country
Brazil