Legally regulated cannabis markets in the US: Implications and possibilities

In November 2012, voters in two US states – Washington and Colorado – approved ballot initiatives to establish legally regulated markets for the production, sale, use and taxation of cannabis (commonly referred to in the US as marijuana). This is the first time anywhere in the world that the recreational use of the drug will be legally regulated – the wellknown coffee shop system in the Netherlands is merely tolerated rather than enshrined in law.

Needless to say, with implications both within and beyond US borders, the drug policy community is watching Colorado and Washington closely. The votes not only put these US states in contravention of US federal law, but also generate considerable tension between the federal government and the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the bedrock of the international drug control regime that the US has so worked so hard to construct and sustain.

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