Dan Malleck, Associate Professor of Health Sciences at Brock, wrote a piece recently published in the Globe and Mail, about lessons learned from the Prohibition era that can be applied to the legalization of marijuana.

Malleck writes:

The Cannabis Act has passed, a date is set for the introduction of legal recreational cannabis across the country: What comes next? Full drug legalization? Easy access to narcotics, psychotropic escapism, values corroded, families torn apart, Canada spinning into the abyss?

Remember this feeling; log these concerns. Because this is similar to how people felt nearly a century ago. Then the drug was alcohol and the worries were much more profound. Social decline, moral corruption, economic collapse, national disaster – these were the concerns that drove liquor prohibition, shaped post-prohibition regulation and provided a template for cannabis legalization.

The main comparison people make with cannabis legalization is the legalization of alcohol after prohibition. Although they are different substances, many of the issues are similar enough that understanding the past might help us understand what is going on now, and what comes next with respect to cannabis legalization.

Continue reading the full article here.