Decriminalizing Marijuana in UK Led to More Illness from Hard Drugs

A one-year experiment to decriminalize marijuana in a borough of London led to 40% to 100% increases in rates of hospitalization, mostly of young men, for illnesses related to use of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin, say Elaine Kelly and Imran Rasul of the Institute for Fiscal Studies in the UK. The increased hospitalizations from the experiment, which removed possession of small quantities of cannabis from a list of prosecutable offenses, led to additional annual costs of about £80,000 per year. Past studies have suggested that cannabis use may lead users to consume harder drugs, the researchers say.