Smoked, eaten, imbibed — or just talked about — it seems the world has a strong appetite for cannabis. An estimated one in five European adults have tried it. Thirteen million Europeans have consumed it in the past month. Globally, nearly 50 000 tonnes of cannabis herb or resin is produced for consumption each year. Little wonder, then, that cannabis has become a controversial cultural and commercial phenomenon. Today, cannabis has a unique ability to divide opinion among policymakers, scientists, law enforcers, drugs professionals and consumers.

This EMCDDA cannabis monograph addresses one basic question. How can I find quality information on cannabis, amid all the bias and opinion? During the editing of this monograph it soon became clear that the EMCDDA was entering an area crowded with general guides, even competing cannabis monographs. This is where the idea of a cannabis ‘reader’ emerged. Our audience — researchers, parliamentarians, drugs professionals, students, European citizens — is currently faced with an overload of professional publications. Added to this is the daily flood of information on the Internet, often crusading in nature, and sometimes misleading. This threatens to obscure the genuine progress made in cannabis research during the past two decades.

The EMCDDA cannabis reader underlines the point that cannabis is not just a static, unchanging plant, but a dynamic product that is subject to gradual evolution in potency, prevalence, cultivation, legislative and public health concerns. In this monograph, leading experts provide short, sharp insights on a range of cannabis topics while offering advice on further reading for each topic. Brief editorial notes provide concise introductions to each topic, occasionally drawing attention to political sensitivities and the need for a ‘critical eye’. So this cannabis reader has a value, both as a shortcut to researchers entering the area and a synthesis for experts.

You will find a wide range of views expressed in the chapters in this monograph, not all of them in agreement. The arguments, tone and conclusion of each chapter is the responsibility of the author alone, and is not necessarily endorsed or supported by the EMCDDA. This reflects the wider discourse on cannabis where different positions and perspectives often lead to different conclusions being drawn from the same evidence. We believe each chapter represents a useful contribution to the overall debate, even if their individual perspectives differ.

Two volumes, multiple audiences: policymakers, enforcers, researchers, professionals

The monograph is divided into two volumes, each comprising three sections. There are a number of reasons for the two-volume approach. While complementary, each has a slightly different audience. The first volume centres on political, legislative, commercial and social developments relating to cannabis. Its core audience thus comprises policymakers, sociologists, historians, journalists and those involved in enforcement. The second volume is very much centred on drugs professionals working in the fields of treatment, prevention and healthcare.

Volume 1

• Cannabis in the past
• Policies, legislation and control strategies
• Supply and production issues

Volume 2

• Epidemiology
• Health effects of cannabis use
• Prevention and treatment

Changing perspectives: from global issues to local experiences

What unites both volumes is an attempt to fuse general chapters with specific case studies. Within each section, you will encounter a progression from a ‘top level’ to a ‘close-up’ view of the subject. So each section begins with chapters providing a general introduction to a single cannabis issue, often of an encyclopaedic nature, together with a summary of the current state of scientific research. The monograph then ‘zooms in’ with a case study about a specific aspect of cannabis.

In Volume 1 ...

In Volume 1 we can read an autobiographical article on events in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s, recent cannabis developments in the EU’s new Member States, the cannabis resin trade linking Morocco to northern Europe, the closure of Pusher Street in the Copenhagen commune of Christiania, and information on how coffee shops developed in the Netherlands. While these articles focus only on smaller pieces of the cannabis puzzle, they provide insights into the many different ways Europe has dealt with cannabis.