There are a growing number of jurisdictions and countries amending their legislation and allowing medicinal cannabis. There is an increasingly high level of variation of medicinal cannabis policies across countries and a lack of an international consensus on how to proceed. This topic has a specific regional focus at present, with Thailand legalising medical cannabis and the production and cultivation of the plant.
With these global and regional shifts in mind, the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health held a Public Health Thought Leadership Dialogue (PHTLD) on 8 October 2019 to explore the current issues relating to medical cannabis and how these relate to the Singapore context.
The 9th instalment of the School’s PHTLD series featured guest speaker Professor Jürgen Rehm, Senior Scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada; and Professor and Inaugural Chair of Addiction Policy at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.
Prof Rehm presented on the current global view of medicinal cannabis and the experience of Canada. The lecture highlighted the factors that led to changes in cannabis legislation, the risks and the long term research required to fully map the impact of changes.
Following the talk was a discussion moderated by Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean, with panellists Mr Sng Chern Hong, Director of Communications Division, Central Narcotics Bureau, Singapore, and Prof May C Wang, Visiting Professor at SSHSPH and Professor at Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
At the end of the event, Prof Teo presented a token of appreciation from the School to our guest speaker Prof Rehm, as well as Mr Sng and Prof Wang for being a part of the panel.
Following the lecture and panel discussion there was a closed-door meeting to reflect on the issues from the Singapore context.
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