The complexities and public health risks of attempting to regulate marijuana.
Marijuana whether in its highly variable “natural” form or in its hybrid or engineered forms is highly problematic when it comes to the full range of its harmful side effects.
Even when thorough and exhaustive clinic research and trials are undertaken before attempting to bring cannabis-based product to market, there is no way of ensuring that there will not be unpredictable harmful effects, whether mental or physical.
There are a plethora of pot-propagandist claims on the ‘panacea potential’ of various potions, tinctures and formulations of the largely unregulated cannabis ‘supplement’ market, that are unleashing already evident and arguably untold harms moving forward, even approved medicines have risks, as indeed most medicines can have.
The sale of Dr Poppy’s Wonder Elixir started in the late 1800’s and sold in Australia up until the end of WW2, this sign dates to 1946 and was found in Alice Springs, Australia
There are those who would argue that even the cannabis-based epilepsy preparation Epidiolex ®. which has been deemed a “clinically approved “ medicine not only has a limited range and narrow efficacy, it can be argued that the full range of the harmful effects and risks involved in its use have not been fully acknowledged. This is the reality of trying to bring cannabis to the market: there are an extremely wide range of harmful effects that will persist and pose a danger to public health that potentially cannot be remedied.
“No state can ever successfully regulate the use of marijuana owing to the fact that it has such idiosyncratic and unpredictable effects on users and those exposed to its use. No state can prevent the predictable as well as unpredictable genotoxic, arteriopathic, and teratogenic effects and other deleterious mental, psychological, physical, and spiritual effects of marijuana use and exposure to marijuana use. Biochemical individuality and differences in the psychopharmacological effects that marijuana use has and exposure to marijuana use has, all make regulation an impossibility.”
Paula D. Gordon PhD Gordon Drug Abuse Prevention 
Communication Team