National regulatory approaches to substance use – universal outcomes?

International approaches to control substance use have dominated the past fifty years, from the United Nations International Drug Control Conventions to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The only major psychoactive substance not internationally controlled has been alcohol.
Despite these international approaches, there have been national and regional initiatives to deal with substance use and attributable harm differently from the international regulatory frameworks. This presentation tries to give an overview of major national approaches and their results to date:
- Alternatives to criminalization of substances: allowing medical use, decriminalization of use and legalization of recreational use;
- The introduction of criminalization to curb legal substances: the tobacco endgames and attempts of alcohol prohibition;
- The success and failures of religion and culture as determinants for regulation;
- The role of producers to shape regulation

We will try to give an overview of general trends in different legislations and their impact on
- Levels of consumption
- Levels of attributable harm
- Acceptability by the population.