SOC 135 Study Guide - Medical Cannabis, Prohibition Of Drugs, Divvy
Document Summary
From a public-health perspective, the ideal marijuana policy would maximize benefits to the criminal-justice system while minimizing social and health effects of abuse and misuse. Increasing the number of occasional consumers isn"t necessarily a health concern especially if consuming marijuana replaces drinking alcohol or using other drugs. But there is concern about perverse incentives in the industry, as have been seen over the decades with tobacco and alcohol, where roughly 80 percent of the product goes to 20 percent of the users. For these people, overuse is somewhere between a concern and a serious problem. So the critical balance of effective marijuana policy is to incentivize producers to make enough to meet demand, but not to substantially grow the market. In uruguay, where marijuana went on sale at some pharmacies last year, the government-controlled supply chain has not met demand, and a national shortage has kept the black market in business.
