Intended for healthcare professionals

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Editor's Choice

Drugs should be legalised, regulated, and taxed

BMJ 2018; 361 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2057 (Published 10 May 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;361:k2057

Rapid Response:

Re: Drugs should be legalised, regulated, and taxed

One of the first things to be carefully legalised, regulated, and taxed should be the plant Cannabis sativa L.

Be honest, marijuana is not a plant, it's is not even a drug, but it is derived from the cannabis plant. The term has long been used as slang for varieties of the cannabis plant which have enough THC to be desirable for the smoker, not necessarily for the others nearby. The varieties of the plant can be more fairly controlled by legislation which correctly identifies what marijuana actually is, and establishes augmentable controls for that, like this:

The term "marijuana" means all parts of the smoke produced by the combustion of the plant Cannabis sativa L. which is, as are the viable seeds of such plant, prohibited to be grown by or sold by any publicly traded corporation or subsidiary company, and such smoke is prohibited to be inhaled by any child or by any person bearing any firearm, as is the intake of any part or any product of such plant containing more than 0.3% THC by weight unless prescribed to such child by an authorized medical practitioner.

Competing interests: No competing interests

12 May 2018
Jack Elam
Data Analyst
Texas