The Global Legalization of Marijuana

The United States is struggling with how to deal with two competing problems: the undertreatment of pain and the abuse of opioids. At the same time, millions of people in third-world countries are dying without access to any opioids, even liquid morphine, due in large part to a variety of barriers relating to distance, regulation, and knowledge.

Could marijuana be the solution to both problems? Although marijuana continues to remain prohibited by federal law and treaty, several countries and US states have defied these prohibitions by passing their own laws and regulating marijuana for recreational or medical purposes.

This presentation examines the labyrinth of laws relating to marijuana in the United States, the extent of suffering in third-world countries, and how the global legalization of marijuana may become a viable solution—or a pipe dream?