Minister reaffirms commitment to provide medical marijuana, but delays continue

Amid ongoing doubts about the federal government's commitment to provide marijuana for medical use, the first Canadian clinical trial of smoked cannabis has been launched, and a Senate committee has released its controversial and much-anticipated report.     

Learning the structure of a simple rent-seeking game

This paper considers a form of the Tullock imperfectly discriminating rent-seeking game in which the contestants are uncertain about the value of a bias parameter in the probability of winning function. Beliefs about this unknown parameter are not constrained to be static; we consider two methods by which the players' prior beliefs on this parameter can be updated. First, we allow for information to emerge by considering the case in which the game is played twice, with the outcome of the first game known before the second begins. The identity of the winner of the first contest represents information which emerges endogenously that can be used to revise beliefs on the unknown bias parameter. Second, information can be produced outside of the model by an external agency; this gives rise to exogenous learning. We consider the consequences for rent-seeking in each of these two cases.     

Pressure and the division of a public budget

This paper considers the division of a public budget among competing interests. The planner determines the optimal allocation by maximizing a weighted social welfare function. These weights reflect society's attitudes to different recipient groups, and are not constrained to be constant. By exerting “pressure”, the recipients can attempt to manipulate the weights and hence influence the division of the budget. The amount of resources used on pressure, and the effects on the preference weights are calculated. An important parameter in the model is the elasticity of pressure, for which an appropriate estimate is presented from the case of competition for a share of a health services budget in Norway.     

Health Canada considers dispensing medical marijuana through pharmacies

Health Canada may be poised to emulate the Netherlands' system of distributing marijuana to HIV/AIDS and other patients through pharmacies. Meanwhile, revisions to the much-criticized medical marijuana regulatory system are under development.     

About the Authors

Biography

About the Authors