Reefer madness is all the capitalists’ fault, d’ye see?

So The Guardian tells us:

Decriminalising the possession of cannabis or strictly regulating access to the drug do not appear to drive up usage, but when the drug is sold commercially the number of users increases and more mental health problems are seen, a review has found.

An international team analysed the dramatic shift in policies on cannabis between 2000 and 2025, including how the numbers of people taking the drug, its potency, and rates of psychosis changed after new rules came in.

As soon as someone tries to profit from the ‘erb then everyone goes mad. See? Capitalists, always the capitalists.

One of our little failings around here is reading the footnotes. The actual study:

Commercialised legal markets for non-medical use in Canada and the USA were associated with increased prevalence of cannabis use and cannabis use disorder in adults and increases in cannabis potency since legalisation. There was no consistent evidence for associations between policy change and the prevalence or incidence of psychotic disorders.

We’d not heard of cannabis use disorder before but:

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is a complex condition that involves a problematic pattern of cannabis (marijuana) use. It can range from mild to severe (addiction).

Ah, so that’s analogous to the definition of alcoholism then. You’ve got CUD if you smoke more than your doctor.

Note the change in meaning from paper to newspaper. Commercial dope doesn’t increase the number of people going mad but it does increase the number of people smoking more dope than some might think wise. Or, as it’s also possible to put that, commercialisation enables more people to get enough of what they themselves desire.

So, err, Yay! for capitalists then, right?

Our objection is to the way that finding got twisted on its way into the newspaper. One of our annoyances about this modern world is the many such cases to take into consideration.

Tim Worstall