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from Part I - The Nature of Cannabis Dependence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2009
In the foreword to the 1972 trade book edition of Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, the official report to the US President and Congress of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, the Commission's chairman wrote:
If public need is an appropriate purpose for publishing a book, and surely it must be, I cannot readily imagine a more legitimate book than the one at hand. For seldom in the nation's history has there been a phenomenon more divisive, more misunderstood, more fraught with impact on family, personal, and community relationships than the marihuana phenomenon.
As the Commission noted more than 30 years ago, the concept of cannabis dependence also had been highly subject to misunderstanding. That challenge is ongoing. Over time, its very existence has been both vigorously asserted and robustly denied in legislative hearings, books and articles in the popular literature, scientific writings, and in the pronouncements of medical and legal experts. In this chapter, we examine the history of this concept, particularly emphasizing key themes that have contributed to how cannabis dependence has been perceived by the general public, by the scientific community, and by policy-makers.
At the outset we ought to acknowledge that many kinds of influence have shaped these perceptions at different points in time. Legend, cannabis users autobiographical accounts, findings of commissions of inquiry, expert opinion, colorful newspaper stories and Hollywood films, the shifting meanings of such terms as “narcotic” and “addict,” nomenclatures for classifying drug and alcohol problems, various iterations of diagnostic guidelines, epidemiological studies of cannabis users, research on brain physiology, and treatment outcome studies have all contributed to how cannabis dependence has been and currently is perceived.
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