Cannabis is in the news. At the recent US Tennis Open in New York, there were headlines about the unmistakable pungent odour of cannabis drifting across courts.

“The smell is everywhere,” said Norwegian player Casper Ruud. “But we have to accept it. I think it’s annoying to be on the court while someone smokes a joint. It’s no fun for us to be tired and to have to inhale the smell of hashish at the same time.”

Cannabis is legal in New York. It is not yet so in Ireland. Fresh hearings on possible changes to Irish drug laws are due to be held at the Oireachtas drugs committee on Thursday, as the new Dáil term begins this week.

The work of the committee was delayed after the publication of an interim report last October. This should give policy-makers an opportunity to consider timely new evidence on the health benefits and risks associated with legislation. Further evidence on the impact of cannabis on the developing brain may also be of benefit to the committee.

New research from Germany, published in the journal PLOS, quantifies clearly the trade-off between health benefits and health risks associated with legalisation. It suggests the projected health damage from cannabis legalisation in Germany is estimated to be almost 20 times greater than any health benefits, and that policymakers need to strike “a careful balance” in regulation, which could include potency control, taxation to discourage overuse and public health campaigns.

The analysis predicted a doubling of cannabis consumption following legalisation - of 400,000 to 800,000 new users - following changes in the law. It further estimated 1-2% of new users may develop long-term mental health problems, amounting to around 2,300 additional cases of severe long term conditions such as depression or cannabis.

Overall, researchers estimated the impact from........

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