The Malta Association of Public Health Medicine (MAPHM) supports the position statement provided by the Maltese Association of Psychiatry and OASI Foundation and is taking this opportunity to reiterate that MAPHM is against the legalization of cannabis for recreational use.
Since our last evidence-based statement, yet more research has emerged to highlight the risk of facilitating use of cannabis by adolescents’ even at very low levels.1
The MAPHM urges a measured and evidence-based approach to the debate around legalization of recreational cannabis that takes into account the serious, harmful long-term individual and societal effects of cannabis use, and precludes political or economic pressures favouring legalization.
Reference
1. Orr C, Spechler P, Cao Z, Albaugh M, Chaarani B, Mackey S, et al. Grey Matter Volume Differences Associated with Extremely Low Levels of Cannabis Use in Adolescence. J Neurosci [Internet]. 2019 Mar 6 [cited 2019 Mar 8];39(10):1817–27. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30643026
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