Access to recreational cannabis in Switzerland with Lavinia Baltes

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr Lavinia Baltes, Head of Research at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Services Aargau, Switzerland. The interview covers her research report on a randomised control trial of public health-oriented recreational cannabis access compared to illegal market access in Basel-Stadt, Switzerland.

· The current legal landscape in Switzerland with respect to cannabis [01:12]

· The difference between cannabis obtained legally and illegally [02:30]

· The potential benefits of legal cannabis compared to illegal cannabis [03:25]

· The key findings of the study [04:20]

· Speculations about why the people who used drugs other than cannabis were more likely to reduce their cannabis use [05:31]

· The findings that surprised the author [06:52]

· How the findings contribute to policy or practice [07:37]

· Could access to legal cannabis increase initiation among those who have never used cannabis? [08:32]

· The importance of harm reduction strategies for cannabis [10:50]

· The difficulties in conducting a randomised control trial [11:35]

About Tsen Vei Lim: Tsen Vei is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

About Lavinia Baltes: Dr Baltes studied psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and completed her PhD in health psychology at the University of Basel and at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin in 2015. She then worked at the University of Mannheim and later as deputy head of the Addiction Department of the Canton Basel-Stadt, contributing significantly to the ‘Weed Care’ study on regulated cannabis sales in Basel. Since 2022, she has been Head of Research at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Services Aargau, and continues as deputy study head of ‘Weed Care’.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Effects of legal access versus illegal market cannabis on use and mental health: A randomized controlled trial - https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70080

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