France


Deconstructing Decriminalization

Casidhe McClone, Columbia Law School J.D. Candidate 2018 With 3.8% of the global population reporting some use of the drug in 2014, cannabis use has increased roughly 27% since 1998. While 3.8% may seem like a low number, it is still high enough to rank marijuana as the most cultivated, produced, trafficked and consumed drug in the world (using 2014 statistics). Considering the drug’s prevalence, some states have pursued an approach to regulation called decriminalization, through which the drug remains illegal but enforcement against users is deprioritized. One EU member, Portugal, took a bigger step 15 years ago and formally […]