公众舆论与医用大麻政策：审视潜在信念及国家医用大麻政策的作用
Public opinion and medical cannabis policies: examining the role of underlying beliefs and national medical cannabis policies.
作者信息
Sznitman Sharon R, Bretteville-Jensen Anne Line
机构信息
School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Eshkol Tower, room 705, Mt. Carmel, 3190501, Haifa, Israel.
Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, Post Box 565, Sentrum, 0105, Oslo, Norway.
出版信息
Harm Reduct J. 2015 Oct 14;12:46. doi: 10.1186/s12954-015-0082-x.
BACKGROUND
Debate about medical cannabis legalization are typically informed by three beliefs: (1) cannabis has medical effects, (2) medical cannabis is addictive and (3) medical cannabis legalization leads to increased used of cannabis for recreational purposes (spillover effects). We examined how strongly these beliefs are associated with public support for medical cannabis legalization and whether this association differs across divergent medical cannabis policy regimes.
METHODS
Robust regression analysis was used to analyse data derived from two nationally representative samples of adults participating in comparable cross-sectional online surveys in one country where medical cannabis smoking is illegal (Norway, n = 2175, 51 % male) and in one country where medical cannabis smoking is legal (Israel, n = 648, 49 % male).
RESULTS
The belief that cannabis has medical benefits was more strongly related to support for medical cannabis legalization than were beliefs about addiction and spillover effects. While the support for medical cannabis legalization was stronger in Israel than in Norway (78 vs. 51 %, p < 0.01), the belief variables had, in general, more impact on the policy stand in Norway.
CONCLUSION
The belief that cannabis has medical benefits is particularly salient for support for medical cannabis legalization. It is possible that the recent surge in evidence supporting the medical benefits of cannabis will increase the belief about medical benefits of cannabis in the general population which may in turn increase public support for medical cannabis legalization. Results also suggest that once medical cannabis is legalized, factors beyond cannabis-specific beliefs will increasingly influence medical cannabis legalization support. These conclusions are, however, only suggestive as the current study is based on cross-sectional data. Hopefully, future research will be able to capitalize on changes in medical cannabis policies and conduct longitudinal studies that enable an examination of the causal relation between public opinion and medical cannabis policy changes.
背景
关于医用大麻合法化的辩论通常基于三种观点：（1）大麻具有医疗作用；（2）医用大麻会上瘾；（3）医用大麻合法化会导致用于娱乐目的的大麻使用增加（溢出效应）。我们研究了这些观点与公众对医用大麻合法化的支持之间的关联强度，以及这种关联在不同的医用大麻政策体制下是否存在差异。
方法
采用稳健回归分析，对来自两个具有全国代表性的成年人样本的数据进行分析。这两个样本分别来自一个医用大麻吸烟非法的国家（挪威，n = 2175，男性占51%）和一个医用大麻吸烟合法的国家（以色列，n = 648，男性占49%），他们参与了类似的横断面在线调查。
结果
与成瘾和溢出效应的观点相比，认为大麻具有医疗益处的观点与对医用大麻合法化的支持之间的关联更强。虽然以色列对医用大麻合法化的支持率高于挪威（78%对51%，p < 0.01），但总体而言，观点变量对挪威的政策立场影响更大。
结论
认为大麻具有医疗益处的观点对于支持医用大麻合法化尤为突出。近期支持大麻医疗益处的证据激增，可能会增强普通民众对大麻医疗益处的信念，进而可能增加公众对医用大麻合法化的支持。结果还表明，一旦医用大麻合法化，除了特定于大麻的信念之外的因素将越来越多地影响对医用大麻合法化的支持。然而，由于本研究基于横断面数据，这些结论仅具有启发性。希望未来的研究能够利用医用大麻政策的变化，开展纵向研究，从而能够检验公众舆论与医用大麻政策变化之间的因果关系。
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