Cannabis 2002 Report

Introduction
At the end of 2000 the Health Ministers of the Netherlands (Mrs Borst), Germany (Mrs Fischer, succeeded by Mrs Schmidt), Switzerland (Mrs Dreifuss) and Belgium (Mrs Aelvoet) took the initiative to organise a scientific conference on the subject of cannabis. In the spring of 2001 the French Health Minister (Mr Kouchner) joined the initiative. The conference took place in Brussels, on February 25 2002, and was hosted by Mrs Aelvoet.
The decision to hold this conference was prompted by the ministers observation that "cannabis" and "cannabis policy" are frequently the subject of debate, but it is not always clear what the scientific state of the art is. Often one argument is pitted against another, without the involved officials (as well as the press and the public) having a clear understanding of the scientific validity of the claims. One consequence of this could be that many political decisions are delayed, or are made on the basis of incomplete or incorrect arguments.

The objective of the conference was to provide the ministers concerned and all others involved in drug policy with an overview of the current state of affairs in scientific research of cannabis: what do we know, and what do we not know? On which issues do scientists agree and which issues are still under debate?

To achieve this, a Scientific Task Force, with from each participating country one co-ordinator, was assigned the task of formulating key questions with regard to cannabis, to be addressed from a variety of scientific disciplines: epidemiology, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, physiology, pharmacology and policy analysis.

During the six months before the conference authors have been busy writing documents to answer these questions. The draft documents were reviewed by more than thirty renowned scientific referees. After taking their comments into account, the revised basic documents were edited by Inge Spruit. She has added an overall summary that is also comprehensible to non-scientists.

This book incorporates the results of these activities. We believe that the authors have succeeded in reducing an enormous quantity of scientific research into comprehensible insights, although these insights make no claim to be complete. It is clear that, alongside the large amount that is known with relative certainty about cannabis, there are also numerous gaps in our knowledge. A great deal more scientific research will therefore need to be done.

The contents of this book are valuable. However, we feel that the way in which the book has been put together is equally significant. The authors’ achievements are impressive and all the reviewers without exception have shown enormous conscientiousness in the comments they have made. The whole process has been characterised by exemplary co-operation and can serve as a model of international collaboration in this exceptionally complicated area. We feel privileged to have been able to play a part in creating this book.