The potential impact of cannabis legalization on the development of cannabis use disorders
Section snippets
Pharmacology
Substances, including cannabis, that are used recreationally and which pose a risk for the development of a clinical substance use disorder (“addiction”) are attractive to most humans because they function as reinforcers (Higgins et al., 2004). That is, the experience that immediately follows drug taking is desirable, and therefore the drug is likely to be used again. The strength of such a reward or reinforcement is determined by multiple factors, the most obvious of which is the direct
Access/availability
The ease or difficulty of accessing an intoxicating substance has an obvious, but often underestimated, influence on individual and population-level substance use initiation, frequency and amount of use, and consequently the risk of developing a substance use disorder. Behavioral economics provides a multi-dimensional conceptualization of access or availability of a reinforcer (e.g., cannabis) that can help one appreciate its potential impact on use and addiction (Bickel et al., 2014, Hursh and
Environmental factors
Multiple aspects of the environment or context in which substances are available (e.g., neighborhood socioeconomic status, cultural factors, societal norms and laws, marketing and advertising) exert an impact on the age of onset, probability, frequency, and amount of use, and problem development (Bickel and DeGrandpre, 1996). Here we briefly discuss just two such factors that are particularly susceptible to the influence of legislation and regulations—marketing and social norms regarding the
Concluding comments
States across the U.S. are attempting to achieve a difficult legislative goal - the regulation of legal cannabis without increasing the prevalence of problematic cannabis use and CUD. Such efforts can benefit from a comprehensive working knowledge of the multiple factors that influence addiction. In this brief essay, we have identified a few well-established risk factors, based on research from multiple scientific disciplines, and attempted to illustrate how specific provisions of cannabis laws
Funding
NIDA: R01-DA032243, R01DA015186, T32-DA037202, P30-DA029926.
The funding sources were not involved in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest other than the receipt of research funding support from the NIH-NIDA as indicated above.
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