For A strategic Analysis of Regulatory Cannabis Policies (ASTRACAN)

New :

• Lévesque G., Cannabis policy implementation in Ontario (2018-2022), 50 p.
  

• Benoit M, Bilan de la mise en œuvre de la légalisation du cannabis au Québec (2018-2022)

• Ivana Obradovic, La légalisation du cannabis en Colombie-Britannique : genèse, mise en œuvre et bilan (2018-2022)

Driven and coordinated by the OFDT thanks to funding from the 2019 Fund for Combatting Addiction to psychoactive substances for 3 years (2019-2021), the ASTRACAN project aims to compare the regulatory policies of non-medical cannabis use implemented in the United States (where 15 states have opened a legal cannabis market despite the federal ban) and Canada.

This collective comparative research, coordinated by the OFDT in partnership with two university research laboratories in political science (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Université de Québec à Montréal), is particularly interested in the conditions for the implementation of these reforms and to their first observable effects in terms of public health, through 6 case studies in the United States (Washington State, Oregon, California) and Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec).

This research is a follow-up to a first study carried out between 2015 and 2017 in Colorado, Washington State and Uruguay (Cannalex), which mapped the relevant stakeholders and reviewed the issues raised in the early years of the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use.

The field study is targeting 6 North American jurisdictions that legalised recreational cannabis between 2012 and 2018, corresponding to:

- the 3 waves of legalisation in the United States (Washington State in 2012, Oregon in 2014, California in 2016) and the different sized markets (California being one of the biggest user markets in the world);

- the 3 most populous provinces in Canada, which have implemented rather restrictive regulatory models (public-private system in British Columbia, private system in Ontario and public system in Quebec).

This section aims to bring together all the work carried out within the framework of the ASTRACAN project, namely:

1. Three reviews of scientific evidence produced on behalf of the OFDT on the experiences of cannabis legalisation for medical and non-medical use carried out in the United States and Canada:

a. The legalization of cannabis in Canada. Case studies: British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec
(author: Gabriel Lévesque) - October 2020

b. Effects of medical and non-medical marijuana legalization on public health in the United States
(author: Adam Darnell, DDR Consulting) - November 2020

c. Marijuana Legalization in the United States: A Comparison of Non-Medical Marijuana Policies and Regulations across Ten U.S. States
(author: Gillian Schauer, Gillian Schauer Consulting) - November 2020

2. A summary in the form of a review of the first global legalisation experiments carried out in the United States, Canada and Uruguay (2014-2020).

3. The results of field studies scheduled for the first half of 2023 are currently under scope : a comparative analysis of the US and Canadian regulation models will be published in 2023:

a. summary of the United States field study (authors: Ivana Obradovic and Anne-France Taiclet)

b. summary of the Canada field study (authors: Ivana Obradovic and Maude Benoit)

c. comparative summary (authors: Ivana Obradovic, Maude Benoit and Anne-France Taiclet)

4. In addition, OFDT has already published two briefing notes on the evolution of legislative policies in the field of medical and non-medical cannabis in the United States  and Canada.