Dr. Thomas Martinelli is a researcher and policy expert with a background in Anthropology and Criminology. Currently, he works at Trimbos-institute in Utrecht. Martinelli uses a variety of research methods to study addiction, drug policy, and crime with special attention for the experiences of people in vulnerable situations.

Globally, an increasing number of jurisdictions are legalizing cannabis for recreational use. Not just in North America, but also in the ‘Global South’, including Uruguay and Thailand, with countries such as Mexico and Colombia expressing plans. This appears to be a shift from punitive approaches to regulatory policies grounded in public health and harm reduction (HR). Legal cannabis policies generally prioritize community health and wellbeing, while also addressing illegal markets and crime, aiming to reduce harms and risks from illegal cannabis markets, including lack of quality control and money flows for organized crime. However, they are not always explicitly framed as HR. Coincidentally, there are increasing calls in the field for a broader application of HR-principles beyond opioid use.

In this presentation, I first argue that global developments around cannabis policies offer new pathways for the integration of HR-principles into drug policies through broadly supported policy goals. Secondly, I argue that applying a HR-lens to cannabis policies, helps to identify more opportunities for HR-based interventions for cannabis consumption and markets. Some examples worth exploring are: safer (non-combustible) or mindful consumption methods, reducing profit motives, cannabis provision programs in prisons, and education about THC-limits and -impacts.

I will discuss ways to make HR more visible within cannabis policy efforts and will highlight tangible interventions and services translating HR-principles into cannabis policy considerations. Finally, I will discuss some barriers like political inertia and powerful commercial interests that may impede progressive policy change.

The input for this presentation comes from my recent involvement in a study mapping global cannabis policy developments, including some indepth casestudies of cannabis regulation efforts in Quebec, Switzerland and Germany. In the study, we looked at (explicit and underlying) policy goals, the process of policy development and lessons that can be learned.