The legalisation of cannabis in North America from a public health perspective. Part 1 - Regulation of cannabis: issues and instruments

Drawing on the range of actions of tobacco and alcohol policies, cannabis regulation focuses in particular on limiting the product's visibility, attractiveness, and accessibility to minors, and sometimes includes legal measures to protect them. In practice, the aim of regulation is to bring order to the market and regulate supply, but also control usage patterns and the associated risks.

The initiatives to regulate cannabis are attracting particular attention because they raise various issues related to public health and the protection of minors, since the health risks associated with this product are well documented .

In the arguments in favour of reform, legalisation promised to strengthen the ban on minors’ access to cannabis, to regain control of the market, and to protect consumers through better control of the substance, its uses and its consequences. 

In practice, these objectives have been converted into very different regulatory policies, with varying degrees of emphasis on the initial objectives.

What has become of these approaches to regulating cannabis, almost ten years on? What are the aims and scope of this regulation? How has it been implemented, and what are the effects in terms of public health and the protection of minors?