Resources: Principles for Cannabis Regulation

The legalization of cannabis without robust regulation risks further exacerbating social, economic, and health disparities. These resources from PHI’s Getting it Right from the Start program were created to help protect communities by providing a framework for communities to refer to when navigating cannabis laws and regulations.

Principles for Protecting Youth, Public Health & Equity in Cannabis Regulation

The war on drugs has resulted in large scale unjust incarceration and other harmful social impacts. At the same time, legalizing cannabis without robust regulation and promoting the growth of an unfettered for-profit industry threatens our developing youth and public health, and risks further exacerbating social, economic, and health disparities. As a society, we have a collective responsibility to prevent or mitigate such harms. These principles were created to help better accomplish this by putting strong guardrails and policies that protect youth, promote public health, and advance social equity where legalization is occurring. Principles include:

• Protect children and youth
• Promote equity and mitigate harms from the war on drugs
• Avert the emergence of a new tobacco-like industry
• Protect public health
• Limit dangerous product diversification and marketing.

Download the one-pager to explore the overarching principles, with policy considerations and recommendations in each category.

Evaluation Checklist for Cannabis Laws and Regulations

The Evaluation Checklist is designed to help communities analyze whether cannabis policies are protecting youth and communities and promoting public health and equity. Evaluation areas include:

• Policies to Avert the Emergence of a New Tobacco-Like Industry;
• Policies that Promote Public Health, Policies to Protect Children and Youth;
• Policies to Limit Aggressive Cannabis Marketing and Dangerous Product Diversification;
• Policies that Promote Social Equity and Mitigate Harms from the War on Drugs.

Originally published by Getting it Right from the Start