Medicinal cannabis law in the USA: history, movements, trends, and countertrends
Legislação sobre cannabis medicinal nos Estados Unidos: histórico, movimentos, tendências e contra-tendências
Clarissa Krieck Lee
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In recent decades, the United States (USA), after banning the use, possession, and commerce of the Cannabis sativa plant for medicinal and social purposes for nearly a century, has embarked on law reform processes and movements at the state level to legalize the plant, forging regulated markets to support these changes. The present study’s objective was to describe the history of prohibition and eventual legalization, observing the social, political, and economic components that contributed to this paradigm shift.
CONTENTS: Qualitative research, using observation, literature review, and analysis of practical experience in advocacy processes, law reform, and building regulated markets to replace prohibition. The historical, social, and economic processes that made up the end of the prohibition of Cannabis sativa and its later regulation as a substance for medicinal and social use were described.
CONCLUSION: Cannabis sativa during the last century has been labeled as a drug with no medicinal potential for purely political and non-scientific reasons. A number of civil society movements in the US led to the legalization of Cannabis sativa due to its therapeutic properties. These movements have succeeded in redefining the plant as a medicine rather than a drug, while also taking into account the high social and economic costs of criminalizing it.
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Resumo
JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: Nas últimas décadas, os Estados Unidos (EUA), depois de proibir o uso, a posse e a comercialização da planta Cannabis sativa para fins medicinais e sociais por quase um século, embarcou em processos e movimentos de reforma de lei em nível estadual para legalizar a planta, forjando mercados regulamentados para amparar essas mudanças. O objetivo deste estudo foi descrever o histórico da proibição e da eventual legalização, observando os componentes sociais, políticos e econômicos que contribuíram para essa mudança de paradigma.
CONTEÚDO: Utilizou-se de revisão de literatura, amparada por análise de experiência prática em processos de “advocacy” e construção de mercados regulamentados em substituição a proibição. Foram descritos os processos históricos, sociais e econômicos que compuseram o fim da proibição da Cannabis sativa e sua eventual regulamentação como substância para uso medicinal e social nos EUA.
CONCLUSÃO: Durante o último século, a Cannabis sativa foi rotulada como droga sem potencial medicinal por motivos puramente políticos e não científicos. Uma série de movimentos da sociedade civil nos EUA levou à legalização da Cannabis sativa devido a suas propriedades terapêuticas. Esses movimentos tiveram êxito ao redefinirem a planta como um remédio ao invés de uma droga, levando em conta também o alto custo social e econômico de sua criminalização.
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References
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Submitted date:
06/19/2022
Accepted date:
01/30/2023
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