legalizing marijuanas for medical use essay

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Most Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana for Medical, Recreational Use

Legalizing recreational marijuana viewed as good for local economies; mixed views of impact on drug use, community safety, table of contents.

• The impact of legalizing marijuana for recreational use
• Partisan differences on impact of recreational use of marijuana
• Demographic, partisan differences in views of marijuana legalization
• Views of marijuana legalization vary by age within both parties
• Views of the effects of legalizing recreational marijuana among racial and ethnic groups
• Wide age gap on views of impact of legalizing recreational marijuana
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand the public’s views about the legalization of marijuana in the United States. For this analysis, we surveyed 5,140 adults from Jan. 16 to Jan. 21, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for the report and its methodology .

As more states pass laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use , Americans continue to favor legalization of both medical and recreational use of the drug.

An overwhelming share of U.S. adults (88%) say marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use.

Nearly six-in-ten Americans (57%) say that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational purposes, while roughly a third (32%) say that marijuana should be legal for medical use only.

Just 11% of Americans say that the drug should not be legal at all.

Opinions about marijuana legalization have changed little over the past five years, according to the Pew Research Center survey, conducted Jan. 16-21, 2024, among 5,14o adults.

While a majority of Americans continue to say marijuana should be legal , there are varying views about the impacts of recreational legalization.

About half of Americans (52%) say that legalizing the recreational use of marijuana is good for local economies; just 17% think it is bad and 29% say it has no impact.

More adults also say legalizing marijuana for recreational use makes the criminal justice system more fair (42%) than less fair (18%); 38% say it has no impact.

However, Americans have mixed views on the impact of legalizing marijuana for recreational use on:

• Use of other drugs: About as many say it increases (29%) as say it decreases (27%) the use of other drugs, like heroin, fentanyl and cocaine (42% say it has no impact).
• Community safety: More Americans say legalizing recreational marijuana makes communities less safe (34%) than say it makes them safer (21%); 44% say it has no impact.

There are deep partisan divisions regarding the impact of marijuana legalization for recreational use.

Majorities of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say legalizing recreational marijuana is good for local economies (64% say this) and makes the criminal justice system fairer (58%).

Fewer Republicans and Republican leaners say legalization for recreational use has a positive effect on local economies (41%) and the criminal justice system (27%).

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to cite downsides from legalizing recreational marijuana:

• 42% of Republicans say it increases the use of other drugs, like heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, compared with just 17% of Democrats.
• 48% of Republicans say it makes communities less safe, more than double the share of Democrats (21%) who say this.

Sizable age and partisan differences persist on the issue of marijuana legalization though small shares of adults across demographic groups are completely opposed to it.

Older adults are far less likely than younger adults to favor marijuana legalization.

This is particularly the case among adults ages 75 and older: 31% say marijuana should be legal for both medical and recreational use.

By comparison, half of adults between the ages of 65 and 74 say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, and larger shares in younger age groups say the same.

Republicans continue to be less supportive than Democrats of legalizing marijuana for both legal and recreational use: 42% of Republicans favor legalizing marijuana for both purposes, compared with 72% of Democrats.

There continue to be ideological differences within each party:

• 34% of conservative Republicans say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, compared with a 57% majority of moderate and liberal Republicans.
• 62% of conservative and moderate Democrats say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, while an overwhelming majority of liberal Democrats (84%) say this.

Along with differences by party and age, there are also age differences within each party on the issue.

A 57% majority of Republicans ages 18 to 29 favor making marijuana legal for medical and recreational use, compared with 52% among those ages 30 to 49 and much smaller shares of older Republicans.

Still, wide majorities of Republicans in all age groups favor legalizing marijuana at least for medical use. Among those ages 65 and older, just 20% say marijuana should not be legal even for medical purposes.

While majorities of Democrats across all age groups support legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use, older Democrats are less likely to say this.

About half of Democrats ages 75 and older (53%) say marijuana should be legal for both purposes, but much larger shares of younger Democrats say the same (including 81% of Democrats ages 18 to 29). Still, only 7% of Democrats ages 65 and older think marijuana should not be legalized even for medical use, similar to the share of all other Democrats who say this.

Substantial shares of Americans across racial and ethnic groups say when marijuana is legal for recreational use, it has a more positive than negative impact on the economy and criminal justice system.

About half of White (52%), Black (53%) and Hispanic (51%) adults say legalizing recreational marijuana is good for local economies. A slightly smaller share of Asian adults (46%) say the same.

Criminal justice

Across racial and ethnic groups, about four-in-ten say that recreational marijuana being legal makes the criminal justice system fairer, with smaller shares saying it would make it less fair.

However, there are wider racial differences on questions regarding the impact of recreational marijuana on the use of other drugs and the safety of communities.

Use of other drugs

Nearly half of Black adults (48%) say recreational marijuana legalization doesn’t have an effect on the use of drugs like heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. Another 32% in this group say it decreases the use of these drugs and 18% say it increases their use.

In contrast, Hispanic adults are slightly more likely to say legal marijuana increases the use of these other drugs (39%) than to say it decreases this use (30%); 29% say it has no impact.

Among White adults, the balance of opinion is mixed: 28% say marijuana legalization increases the use of other drugs and 25% say it decreases their use (45% say it has no impact). Views among Asian adults are also mixed, though a smaller share (31%) say legalization has no impact on the use of other drugs.

Community safety

Hispanic and Asian adults also are more likely to say marijuana’s legalization makes communities less safe: 41% of Hispanic adults and 46% of Asian adults say this, compared with 34% of White adults and 24% of Black adults.

Young Americans view the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in more positive terms compared with their older counterparts.

Clear majorities of adults under 30 say it is good for local economies (71%) and that it makes the criminal justice system fairer (59%).

By comparison, a third of Americans ages 65 and older say legalizing the recreational use of marijuana is good for local economies; about as many (32%) say it makes the criminal justice system more fair.

There also are sizable differences in opinion by age about how legalizing recreational marijuana affects the use of other drugs and the safety of communities.

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9 facts about Americans and marijuana

Most americans now live in a legal marijuana state – and most have at least one dispensary in their county, americans overwhelmingly say marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use, clear majorities of black americans favor marijuana legalization, easing of criminal penalties, concern about drug addiction has declined in u.s., even in areas where fatal overdoses have risen the most, most popular, report materials.

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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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The Evidence—and Lack Thereof—About Cannabis

Research is still needed on cannabis’s risks and benefits. 

Lindsay Smith Rogers

Although the use and possession of cannabis is illegal under federal law, medicinal and recreational cannabis use has become increasingly widespread.

Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical cannabis, while 23 states and D.C. have legalized recreational use. Cannabis legalization has benefits, such as removing the product from the illegal market so it can be taxed and regulated, but science is still trying to catch up as social norms evolve and different products become available. 

In this Q&A, adapted from the August 25 episode of Public Health On Call , Lindsay Smith Rogers talks with Johannes Thrul, PhD, MS , associate professor of Mental Health , about cannabis as medicine, potential risks involved with its use, and what research is showing about its safety and efficacy. 

Do you think medicinal cannabis paved the way for legalization of recreational use?

The momentum has been clear for a few years now. California was the first to legalize it for medical reasons [in 1996]. Washington and Colorado were the first states to legalize recreational use back in 2012. You see one state after another changing their laws, and over time, you see a change in social norms. It's clear from the national surveys that people are becoming more and more in favor of cannabis legalization. That started with medical use, and has now continued into recreational use.

But there is a murky differentiation between medical and recreational cannabis. I think a lot of people are using cannabis to self-medicate. It's not like a medication you get prescribed for a very narrow symptom or a specific disease. Anyone with a medical cannabis prescription, or who meets the age limit for recreational cannabis, can purchase it. Then what they use it for is really all over the place—maybe because it makes them feel good, or because it helps them deal with certain symptoms, diseases, and disorders.

Does cannabis have viable medicinal uses?

The evidence is mixed at this point. There hasn’t been a lot of funding going into testing cannabis in a rigorous way. There is more evidence for certain indications than for others, like CBD for seizures—one of the first indications that cannabis was approved for. And THC has been used effectively for things like nausea and appetite for people with cancer.

There are other indications where the evidence is a lot more mixed. For example, pain—one of the main reasons that people report for using cannabis. When we talk to patients, they say cannabis improved their quality of life. In the big studies that have been done so far, there are some indications from animal models that cannabis might help [with pain]. When we look at human studies, it's very much a mixed bag. 

And, when we say cannabis, in a way it's a misnomer because cannabis is so many things. We have different cannabinoids and different concentrations of different cannabinoids. The main cannabinoids that are being studied are THC and CBD, but there are dozens of other minor cannabinoids and terpenes in cannabis products, all of varying concentrations. And then you also have a lot of different routes of administration available. You can smoke, vape, take edibles, use tinctures and topicals. When you think about the explosion of all of the different combinations of different products and different routes of administration, it tells you how complicated it gets to study this in a rigorous way. You almost need a randomized trial for every single one of those and then for every single indication.

What do we know about the risks of marijuana use?  

Cannabis use disorder is a legitimate disorder in the DSM. There are, unfortunately, a lot of people who develop a problematic use of cannabis. We know there are risks for mental health consequences. The evidence is probably the strongest that if you have a family history of psychosis or schizophrenia, using cannabis early in adolescence is not the best idea. We know cannabis can trigger psychotic symptoms and potentially longer lasting problems with psychosis and schizophrenia. 

It is hard to study, because you also don't know if people are medicating early negative symptoms of schizophrenia. They wouldn't necessarily have a diagnosis yet, but maybe cannabis helps them to deal with negative symptoms, and then they develop psychosis. There is also some evidence that there could be something going on with the impact of cannabis on the developing brain that could prime you to be at greater risk of using other substances later down the road, or finding the use of other substances more reinforcing. 

What benefits do you see to legalization?

When we look at the public health landscape and the effect of legislation, in this case legalization, one of the big benefits is taking cannabis out of the underground illegal market. Taking cannabis out of that particular space is a great idea. You're taking it out of the illegal market and giving it to legitimate businesses where there is going to be oversight and testing of products, so you know what you're getting. And these products undergo quality control and are labeled. Those labels so far are a bit variable, but at least we're getting there. If you're picking up cannabis at the street corner, you have no idea what's in it. 

And we know that drug laws in general have been used to criminalize communities of color and minorities. Legalizing cannabis [can help] reduce the overpolicing of these populations.

What big questions about cannabis would you most like to see answered?

We know there are certain, most-often-mentioned conditions that people are already using medical cannabis for: pain, insomnia, anxiety, and PTSD. We really need to improve the evidence base for those. I think clinical trials for different cannabis products for those conditions are warranted.

Another question is, now that the states are getting more tax revenue from cannabis sales, what are they doing with that money? If you look at tobacco legislation, for example, certain states have required that those funds get used for research on those particular issues. To me, that would be a very good use of the tax revenue that is now coming in. We know, for example, that there’s a lot more tax revenue now that Maryland has legalized recreational use. Maryland could really step up here and help provide some of that evidence.

Are there studies looking into the risks you mentioned?

Large national studies are done every year or every other year to collect data, so we already have a pretty good sense of the prevalence of cannabis use disorder. Obviously, we'll keep tracking that to see if those numbers increase, for example, in states that are legalizing. But, you wouldn't necessarily expect to see an uptick in cannabis use disorder a month after legalization. The evidence from states that have legalized it has not demonstrated that we might all of a sudden see an increase in psychosis or in cannabis use disorder. This happens slowly over time with a change in social norms and availability, and potentially also with a change in marketing. And, with increasing use of an addictive substance, you will see over time a potential increase in problematic use and then also an increase in use disorder.

If you're interested in seeing if cannabis is right for you, is this something you can talk to your doctor about?

I think your mileage may vary there with how much your doctor is comfortable and knows about it. It's still relatively fringe. That will very much depend on who you talk to. But I think as providers and professionals, everybody needs to learn more about this, because patients are going to ask no matter what.

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast , an editor for Expert Insights , and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Essays on Cannabis Legalization

Thomas, Danna Kang

Though the drug remains illegal at the federal level, in recent years states and localities have increasingly liberalized their marijuana laws in order to generate tax revenue and save resources on marijuana law enforcement. Many states have adopted some form of medical marijuana and/or marijuana decriminalization laws, and as of 2017, Washington, Colorado, Maine, California, Oregon, Massachusetts, Nevada, Alaska, and the District of Columbia have all legalized marijuana for recreational use. In 2016 recreational marijuana generated over $1.8 billion in sales. Hence, studying marijuana reforms and the policies and outcomes of early recreational marijuana adopters is an important area of research. However, perhaps due to the fact that legalized recreational cannabis is a recent phenomenon, a scarcity of research exists on the impacts of recreational cannabis legalization and the efficacy and efficiency of cannabis regulation. This dissertation aims to fill this gap, using the Washington recreational marijuana market as the primary setting to study cannabis legalization in the United States. Of first order importance in the regulation of sin goods such as cannabis is quantifying the value of the marginal damages of negative externalities. Hence, Chapter 1 (co-authored with Lin Tian) explores the impact of marijuana dispensary location on neighborhood property values, exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in marijuana retailer location. Policymakers and advocates have long expressed concerns that the positive effects of the legalization--e.g., increases in tax revenue--are well spread spatially, but the negative effects are highly localized through channels such as crime. Hence, we use changes in property values to measure individuals' willingness to pay to avoid localized externalities caused by the arrival of marijuana dispensaries. Our key identification strategy is to compare changes in housing sales around winners and losers in a lottery for recreational marijuana retail licenses. (Due to location restrictions, license applicants were required to provide an address of where they would like to locate.) Hence, we have the locations of both actual entrants and potential entrants, which provides a natural difference-in-differences set-up. Using data from King County, Washington, we find an almost 2.4% decrease in the value of properties within a 0.5 mile radius of an entrant, a $9,400 decline in median property values. The aforementioned retail license lottery was used to distribute licenses due to a license quota. Retail license quotas are often used by states to regulate entry into sin goods markets as quotas can restrict consumption by decreasing access and by reducing competition (and, therefore, increasing markups). However, license quotas also create allocative inefficiency. For example, license quotas are often based on the population of a city or county. Hence, licenses are not necessarily allocated to the areas where they offer the highest marginal benefit. Moreover, as seen in the case of the Washington recreational marijuana market, licenses are often distributed via lottery, meaning that in the absence of an efficiency secondary market for licenses, the license recipients are not necessarily the most efficient potential entrants. This allocative inefficiency is generated by heterogeneity in firms and consumers. Therefore, in Chapter 2, I develop a model of demand and firm pricing in order to investigate firm-level heterogeneity and inefficiency. Demand is differentiated by geography and incorporates consumer demographics. I estimate this demand model using data on firm sales from Washington. Utilizing the estimates and firm pricing model, I back out a non-parametric distribution of firm variable costs. These variable costs differ by product and firm and provide a measure of firm inefficiency. I find that variable costs have lower inventory turnover; hence, randomly choosing entrants in a lottery could be a large contributor to allocative inefficiency. Chapter 3 explores the sources of allocative inefficiency in license distribution in the Washington recreational marijuana market. A difficulty in studying the welfare effects of license quotas is finding credible counterfactuals of unrestricted entry. Therefore, I take a structural approach: I first develop a three stage model that endogenizes firm entry and incorporates the spatial demand and pricing model discussed in Chapter 2. Using the estimates of the demand and pricing model, I estimate firms' fixed costs and use data on locations of those potential entrants that did not win Washington's retail license lottery to simulate counterfactual entry patterns. I find that allowing firms to enter freely at Washington's current marijuana tax rate increases total surplus by 21.5% relative to a baseline simulation of Washington's license quota regime. Geographic misallocation and random allocation of licenses account for 6.6\% and 65.9\% of this difference, respectively. Moreover, as the primary objective of these quotas is to mitigate the negative externalities of marijuana consumption, I study alternative state tax policies that directly control for the marginal damages of marijuana consumption. Free entry with tax rates that keep the quantity of marijuana or THC consumed equal to baseline consumption increases welfare by 6.9% and 11.7%, respectively. I also explore the possibility of heterogeneous marginal damages of consumption across geography, backing out the non-uniform sales tax across geography that is consistent with Washington's license quota policy. Free entry with a non-uniform sales tax increases efficiency by over 7% relative to the baseline simulation of license quotas due to improvements in license allocation.

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Pros and Cons of Legalizing Marijuana

The pros of legalizing marijuana, the cons of legalizing marijuana.

• Scientific Evidence

The pros and cons of legalizing marijuana are still being debated. Today, 37 U.S. states allow for the medical use of marijuana. A growing number allow recreational use.

However, as a Schedule I controlled substance, marijuana is illegal under federal law. This Drug Enforcement Administration designation means that marijuana is considered to have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." It also limits medical studies into the potential benefits of cannabis .

This article explains the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana, as some have argued them.

Americans overwhelmingly support the legalization of marijuana. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, 88% of Americans support legalizing marijuana. Of those, 59% say it should be legal for medical and recreational use and 30% say it should be legal for medical reasons only.

Several possible health benefits of medical marijuana have been proposed:

• Nausea : Marijuana is effective in relieving nausea and vomiting. Studies have shown that cannabis can decrease nausea caused by chemotherapy and almost eliminate vomiting.
• Spasticity : Marijuana can relieve pain and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.
• Appetite : Marijuana can help treat appetite loss associated with conditions like  HIV/AIDS and certain types of cancers.
• Chronic pain : Marijuana can relieve certain types of chronic pain, including neuropathic pain, which is caused by nerve damage.

And arguments in favor of using medical marijuana include:

• It's safer : Marijuana is safer than some other medications prescribed to treat pain. For example, some people may use it instead of opioids for pain management. Opioids are highly addictive and are typically not recommended for long-term use in treating chronic pain.
• You can use it in many ways : You do not need to smoke cannabis for its benefits. Products such as cannabidiol oil (CBD), topical pain relief treatments, edibles, and other non-smoking applications are now available.
• You don't need to get high : As studies continue, researchers are finding benefits in the individual compounds in cannabis. When these chemicals are isolated—such as CBD has been—they can offer treatment options without the "high" produced by the compound commonly known as THC.
• It's natural : People have used marijuana for centuries as a natural medicinal agent with good results.

Recreational Marijuana

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in 20 states and the District of Columbia. In 20 other states, marijuana has been decriminalized. This means there are no criminal penalties in these states for minor marijuana-related offenses like possession of small amounts or cultivation for personal use.

Those who oppose the legalization of marijuana point to the health risks of the drug, including:

• Memory issues : Frequent marijuana use may seriously affect your short-term memory.
• Cognition problems : Frequent use can impair your cognitive (thinking) abilities.
• Lung damage : Smoking anything, whether it's tobacco or marijuana, can damage your lung tissue. In addition, smoking marijuana could increase the risk of lung cancer .
• Abuse : Marijuana carries a risk of abuse and addiction.
• Accidents : Marijuana use impairs driving skills and increases the risk for car collisions.

The fact that the federal government groups it in the same category as drugs like heroin, LSD, and ecstasy is reason enough to keep it illegal, some say. As Schedule I drugs are defined by having no accepted value, legalization could give users the wrong impression about where research on the drug stands.

Scientific Evidence Remains Limited

In the past, clinical trials to to determine if marijuana is effective in treating certain conditions have been restrictive and limited. However, as medical marijuana becomes more common throughout the world, researchers are doing more studies.

Expert reviews of current research continue to say more studies are needed. In addition, many hurdles involve controlling the quality and dosing of cannabis with what is legally available to researchers.

One review of research noted that the long-term effects of cannabis are still unknown. Without more research into dosage and adverse effects, scientific evidence of risks and therapeutic effects remains soft.

Researchers need to evaluate marijuana using the same standards as other medications to understand whether it is valuable for managing any conditions.

Until the federal government downgrades marijuana from a Schedule I drug, widespread clinical trials are unlikely to happen in the United States.

Medical marijuana is increasingly available in the U.S. It is often used to treat chronic pain, muscle spasms, and nausea and vomiting, and to increase appetite. However, it can affect thinking and memory, increase the risk of accidents, and smoking it may harm the lungs and lead to cancer.

More studies are needed to understand the benefits of medical marijuana. However, unless the federal government removes it as a Schedule I controlled substance, research, access, and legality will remain complicated.

A Word From Verywell

There are both benefits and risks to medical marijuana. If you're considering using marijuana medicinally, don't be afraid to talk to your doctor about it. They can help you determine whether marijuana may be the proper treatment for you.

Medical marijuana remains controversial, but it is gaining traction as a legitimate recommendation for various symptoms. Even though many states have legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes and recreational use, more research is needed.

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United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Drug scheduling .

Pew Research Center. Americans overwhelmingly say marijuana should be legal for recreational or medical use .

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Corey-Bloom J, Wolfson T, Gamst A, et al. Smoked cannabis for spasticity in multiple sclerosis: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial .  CMAJ . 2012;184(10):1143-1150. doi:10.1503/cmaj.110837

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Corroon J, Sexton M, Bradley R. Indications and administration practices amongst medical cannabis healthcare providers: a cross-sectional survey . BMC Fam Pract. 2019;20(1):174. doi:10.1186/s12875-019-1059-8

Morales P, Reggio PH, Jagerovic N. An overview on medicinal chemistry of synthetic and natural derivatives of cannabidiol . Front Pharmacol . 2017;8:422. doi:10.3389/fphar.2017.00422

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Preuss U, Huestis M, Schneider M et al. Cannabis use and car crashes: A review . Front Psychiatry . 2021;12. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.643315

Deshpande A, Mailis-Gagnon A, Zoheiry N, Lakha SF. Efficacy and adverse effects of medical marijuana for chronic noncancer pain: Systematic review of randomized controlled trials . Can Fam Physician. 2015;61(8):e372-81.

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By Angela Morrow, RN Angela Morrow, RN, BSN, CHPN, is a certified hospice and palliative care nurse.

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ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation

The ethics of legalizing medical marijuana.

Ethical Inquiry is a monthly series that examines ethical questions, highlighting a broad array of opinion from journalism, academia and advocacy organizations. Our intent is to illuminate and explore the complexity of some of the most vexing ethical questions of our time.

In this installment of “Ethical Inquiry” inquiry we explore the ethical implications of legalizing medical marijuana.

Impact on Health

The movement toward legalization of marijuana for medical purposes is based in part on the belief that the substance has beneficial medical effects. But there is debate on this point.

The debate over legalizing medical marijuana centers squarely on the definition of a Schedule I drug and whether cannabis should still be considered as such. According to the Controlled Substances Act , passed by Congress and signed into law by President Nixon in 1970, a Schedule I drug has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and lacks acceptable safety for use under medical supervision.

Marijuana was included in the “Hallucinogenic Substances” category as a Schedule I substance, so the sale, purchase, or consumption of marijuana became illegal. Thus the legal status of medical marijuana is determined by whether or not it has an “accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

The California Medical Association suggests marijuana could play a role in treatment of serious medical conditions.

In 2011, the California Medical Association (CMA) Council on Scientific and Clinical Affairs issued a set of recommendations for the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Pursuant to California law, a doctor may prescribe marijuana for patients suffering from AIDS, anorexia, arthritis, cancer, migraine headaches, seizures, severe nausea, glaucoma, and chronic pain.

While the CMA declares the evidence supporting the medical value of marijuana is inconclusive, they assert that marijuana is most efficacious when used to manage neuropathic pain, a form of “severe and often chronic pain resulting from nerve injury, disease, or toxicity,” and can be used effectively for “analgesia, appetite stimulation and cachexia; nausea and vomiting following chemotherapy; neurological and movement disorders, and glaucoma.”

The CMA asserts that there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to buttress the case of medical marijuana.

Popular singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge famously discussed her own use of marijuana to “relieve the nausea, [and] relieve the pain” caused by chemotherapy treatment for her breast cancer. According to Etheridge, the marijuana was not addictive, nor did it create a high for her. Rather, it allowed her to “get out of bed” and “go see [her] kid.”

However the California Medical Association also cautions that there is a dearth of research in this field and that more conclusive evidence will require more data.

The American College of Physicians also suggests that more research is needed. In a position paper calling for the support of programs and funding for the research of potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana lead researcher Tia Taylor contends that there are many medical benefits of marijuana use. However, Taylor states that there is little evidence to support this because of the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug. According to Taylor, with the reclassification of marijuana, and greater research into its therapeutic benefits, scientists and doctors will be able to better analyze the benefits and harmful side effects of marijuana use.

The research already available regarding the potential medical uses of marijuana has found that:

Both oral and smoked marijuana stimulate appetite, increase caloric intake, and result in weight gain among patients experiencing HIV wasting.

Marijuana has been shown to have neuroprotective properties and to reduce high intraocular pressure, pupil restriction, and conjunctival hyperemia, all of which results in glaucoma.

Smoked marijuana provides relief of spasticity, pain, and tremor in some patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), spinal cord injuries, or other trauma.

According to this research, many of the negative side effects of marijuana — including increased risk of cancer, lung damage, bacterial pneumonia, poor pregnancy, among others — can be removed if marijuana is administered via methods other than smoking. For instance, Sativex, an oromucosal spray of natural cannabis, was approved in June 2006 for prescription use in Canada to treat neuropathic pain in patients with multiple sclerosis. The vaporization of marijuana provides the same therapeutic benefits of smoked marijuana without the negative consequences of administering marijuana via smoking.

Though the California Medical Association issued recommendations for the use of medical marijuana, the CMA references multiple health risks associated with marijuana use.

Addiction: 9% of adult marijuana users are addicted; this risk is heightened if the individual began marijuana use before age 18.

Short Term Cognitive Effects: intoxication causes impairments of memory, sense of time, sensory perception, attention span, problem solving, verbal fluency, reaction time, and psychomotor control.

Long Term Cognitive Effects: loss in the ability to learn and remember new information.

Adolescents and Young Adults: have greater vulnerability to the toxic effects of marijuana on the brain, at increased risk of addiction, at risk of developing mental illness, and at risk of performing more poorly at school and work.

Psychiatric Conditions: marijuana can cause transient mood, anxiety, schizophrenia.

Obstructive Lung Disease: increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Reproductive Risks: marijuana use during pregnancy is associated with developmental delay and behavioral problems.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) concludes in a position paper on the medical use of marijuana, that marijuana delivers harmful substances to the body, similar to many of the cancer-causing substances found in tobacco smoke.

However, the American Cancer Society also states that marijuana can treat patients suffering from pain in ways that traditional medicine fails at doing. The ACS states that marijuana has potential to treat those suffering from pain, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, and AIDS. According to their position paper on marijuana, “the ACS is supportive of more research into the benefits of cannabinoids. Better and more effective treatments are needed to overcome the side effects of cancer and its treatment. [However], the ACS does not advocate the use of inhaled marijuana or the legalization of marijuana.”

Some opponents contend that there will be negative impacts on health because medical marijuana will be [more easily accessible and therefore more] abused. In a letter to the editor of the Denver Post, Dr. Christian Thurstone, the director of an adolescent substance abuse treatment program, recounts a story about the ability of a 19-year-old he was treating for severe addiction to easily procure marijuana under the guise of medical need:

"He recently showed up at my clinic with a medical marijuana license. How did he get it? He paid $300 for a brief visit with another doctor to discuss his 'depression.' The doctor took a cursory medical history that certainly didn’t involve contacting me. The teenager walked out with the paperwork needed not only for a license to smoke it, but also for a license permitting a 'caregiver' to grow up to six marijuana plants for him. My patient, who had quit using addictive substances after a near-death experience, is back to smoking marijuana daily, along with his caregiver. However, because of the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, little research has been done to prove definitively that the use of marijuana for medical purposes has no value."

Unintended Consequences ... And Incidental Benefits?

Whatever the medical benefits or harms of marijuana, there is also discussion of unintended consequences — both good and bad — of legalizing marijuana for medical use.

In Colorado, more than a dozen young children have been unintentionally poisoned with marijuana as a result of children consuming marijuana-laced cookies, brownies, sodas, and candy, according to researcher Dr. George Sam Wang of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver. Because of the perceived stigma attached to the use of marijuana, many parents are unwilling to report its use to health care providers when questioned regarding the child’s poisoning. Before the legalization of medical marijuana in Colorado, there were no reported instances of children being poisoned with the drug.

Some are concerned that legalization of medical marijuana will lead to wider acceptance of illegal drugs, that marijuana will serve as a “gateway” to other drugs.

According to a report published by the Yale Medical School, frequent marijuana use among young adults significantly increases the risk of greater involvement with other illegal drugs.

Further, another study performed by the Yale Medical School found that adolescents who use marijuana are at a greater risk for subsequent abuse of prescription opioids, more commonly known as pain killers.

Others hope that legalization of medical marijuana will lead to general legalization of marijuana. In November 2012 Colorado, a state that had legalized the medical use of marijuana, became one of the first states in the nation — together with Washington — to legalize the recreational use of marijuana .

However, this puts these states in direct contradiction to federal drug laws, and will ultimately depend on the federal government’s level of enforcement of current drug laws. In Colorado, and in the other states that permit the use of medical marijuana, the federal government has largely left its medical marijuana practice alone. In 2009, the Department of Justice issued a memorandum to the states that allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes indicating that the federal government would not interfere in their states’ marijuana policies (pdf) .

Though not a case of direct harm to individuals using marijuana for medical purposes, a recent New York Times article, “Marijuana Crops in California Threaten Forests and Wildlife” reports that the cultivation of marijuana in California, a state where medical marijuana is legal, has led to the death of weasels, spotted owls, among other animals. Mourad Gabriel, a scientist from the University of California at Davis found that the contamination of the local environment originated with marijuana growers in deep forests spreading d-Con rat poison to protect their plants from wood rats. The growing of marijuana for medical purposes in California has also resulted in the leveling of hilltops, landslides caused by bulldozers, severe logging, clogging of streams with dislodged soil, and the decimation of streams caused by the sapping of the local water supply.

However, the San Francisco Bay Guardian found that moving the cultivation of marijuana from indoors to outdoors would help reduce the carbon footprint of marijuana cultivation. This would require less strict laws governing the production of marijuana and would happen only if marijuana be decriminalized or legalized. At present, “indoor pot production accounts for about 8 percent of California household energy use, costing about $3 billion annually and producing about 4 millions tons of greenhouse gases each year, the equivalent of 1 million automobiles.” Proponents of marijuana argue that a simple solution to this is to grow the plant outdoors, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of marijuana cultivation and lessening the detrimental impact on the environment.

Ethical And Religious Considerations

There is a debate based on issues other than pure medical effects of marijuana. Many individuals champion their own ethical or religious reasons for supporting or opposing the use of medical marijuana.

Bob Enyart, the pastor of the Denver Bible Church, makes a theological case opposing the use of marijuana, writing in the Huffington Post “It's wrong to get high. For in doing so you reject the counsel of the God who made you. And by intoxication you lose what should be a full control of your mental and moral faculties. You become a threat to yourself and a risk to those around you.” Here, the pastor makes a case in opposing any sort of drug that alters one’s brain chemistry, as that loss of control over thought in itself is contrary to the wishes of God.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a report (pdf) in June 2013 bemoaning the racial prejudice in arrests for possession of marijuana. According to the study, blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though blacks and whites use marijuana at comparable rates. To combat this discrepancy, the ACLU recommends the legalization of marijuana use and possession, basing its finding on the inequality that persists in the prosecution of individuals who use marijuana.

Political Questions

The debate over legalization of medical marijuana has a political dimension as well. The trajectory of public opinion trends towards greater acceptance for the use of marijuana, while most politicians, including the president continue to oppose the legalization of medical marijuana.

The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy continues to oppose the use of marijuana. According to the White House’s website, the Obama administration opposes marijuana because of its addictive properties, the chemicals inside it that change brain chemistry, its use resulting in respiratory and mental illness, among many other reasons. While the administration opposes the legalization of marijuana, it joins “major medical societies in supporting increased research into marijuana’s many components, delivered in a safe (non-smoked) manner, in the hopes that they can be available for medical professionals to legally prescribe if proven safe and effective.” This ultimately leaves the White House open to the use of medical marijuana, once they deem it haven been proven safe for medical use.

While the White House and most politicians continue to oppose the use of marijuana, the vast majority of Americans (77%) believe that doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for serious illnesses.

However, full legalization of marijuana enjoys less public support, with a slight majority of Americans (52%) supporting marijuana legalization. Public support for marijuana legalization has grown in recent years, as “most Americans no longer see marijuana as a ‘gateway’ to more dangerous drugs, and most no longer see its use as immoral.” Moreover, most Americans believe that the federal government’s enforcement of its marijuana policies “cost more than they are worth.”

International Perspective

There are other countries that have liberalized marijuana policies. For example , in Peru “individuals are allowed up to 8 grams of cannabis in their possession as long as they don’t possess another drug,” and in Argentina the Supreme Court “legalized the private use of marijuana in small amounts, ruling that it would be ‘unconstitutional’ to ban it.”

In Portugal, the use of marijuana among youth actually fell between 2002 and 2006 after the country legalized marijuana in 2001. In addition to the decline in drug use , there was a subsequent reduction in drug deaths, and a lower prevalence of drug use in Portugal than in other European countries.

Final Thoughts

In recent years, the legal landscape in the United States regarding medical marijuana has shifted considerably, but the question of whether legalization is the right path is far from settled. Do detrimental effects outweigh therapeutic benefits? Are there nonmedical factors that justify one approach or another? How should competing concerns be reconciled?

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This issue of "Ethical Inquiry" is researched and written by Alex Thomson ’15.

THREE ESSAYS ON THE EFFECT OF LEGALIZING MARIJUANA ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND SOCIAL SECURITY

The legalization of marijuana has emerged as a critical public policy issue, with far-reaching implications for health, education, and government programs at both the state and federal levels. The three essays of this dissertation show that medical marijuana legalization (MML) has a negative effect in each of these areas. The first essay shows, that the enactment of MMLs can exacerbate the crisis of overdose deaths in the United States. The study analyzes three key areas: the rate of overdose deaths caused by both legal and illegal drugs, the impact of MML on social norms regarding the perceived harm of marijuana, and an investigation into the gateway theory by examining the use of other addictive drugs. I find that MMLs increase deaths attributed to overdose by 21.5% population. MMLs s also indicate increase the number of deaths due to prescribed opioids by 44.6%, and deaths from all opioids (heroin and cocaine in addition to prescribed opioids) by 37.2 % Results suggest an overall increase in the use of marijuana, primarily due to lower perceived risk among adolescents. Additionally, results show an increase in hospital admissions due to substance abuse. The analysis suggests that legalizing medical marijuana may exaggerate the current problem of drug overdose in the United States. The second essay examines the impact of improved access to medical marijuana, measured by the proximity of schools to the nearest dispensary, on the academic performance of high school students in California. Students in schools farther from a marijuana dispensary have higher academic performance as measured through AP, ACT, SAT scores, and average GPA, and lower number of suspensions due to violence and illicit drug use. To show this, I construct the first geocoded dataset on marijuana dispensary and high school locations, use newly developed difference-in-differences estimators that rule out any bias due to heterogeneous treatment effects over time, and explore dynamic responses. This essay reveals the importance of ensuring a largest possible distance between schools and dispensaries to protect adolescents from the potential harm caused by medical marijuana. Finally, the third essay shows that in the long term, MMLs increase the number of disabled workers who receive Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) because of mental health issues. SSDI is a major social insurance program that provides benefits to workers who become disabled, and understanding how policy changes in other areas may impact this program is important. In this study, there were important differences between the results of a two-way fixed effects model and a new model by Callaway and Santa’Anna. MMLs, in theory, could either increase or decrease the number of SSDI recipients, and traditional fixed effects models suggest both could be at play; however, only the negative effect is robust to correction for heterogeneous effects. This highlights the need for future research to understand the true impact of medical marijuana legalization

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How Marijuana Legalization Is Affecting Use

Research shows changes in cannabis use throughout the u.s..

Posted May 31, 2024 | Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer

• New research shows more people are using cannabis than ever before.
• There is no evidence of an increase of cannabis use among teens.
• Despite the stable teen use, adolescents who do use cannabis report using more frequently.

Over the past several decades, marijuana legalization has accelerated across the United States. Cannabis is now legal for recreational use in 24 states and Washington, D.C., as well as for medical use in 38 states and Washington, D.C. Now that it’s more widely available, researchers are asking how legalization is affecting cannabis use.

Not surprisingly, surveys have found that cannabis use is increasing. For the first time on record, more Americans are using cannabis daily than alcohol , according to a new study published earlier this month in the journal Addiction .

The study used data from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which was conducted four times between 1979 and 2022. In 2022, 17.7 million people reported using cannabis every day or nearly every day, compared with 14.7 million who reported using alcohol every day or nearly every day. In 2022, the number of people who reported using marijuana daily was 15 times higher than reported in 1992.

But there are clear health threats to using cannabis products regularly. One systematic review found regular cannabis use impairs cognition , lowers motivation , and can lead to mental health problems.

Part of the trouble is that today’s cannabis is more potent. A 2020 systematic review found that levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, has increased by approximately 2.9 milligrams each year since the 1970s. A gram of cannabis now has two to four times what is considered the standard dose of THC, which typically produces a mild intoxication for non-regular users. Evidence also shows that higher doses lead to higher rates of addiction and psychosis among marijuana users.

Cannabis use may be an increasing public health problem for adults, but what about adolescents?

Surprisingly, data shows marijuana use among teens is flat or slightly declining.

A study published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics used data from the Youth Risk Behavior survey, which has collected information from more than 900,000 high school students from 2011 to 2021. The study found that after states enacted legal commercial sales of cannabis for adults aged 21 and older, more adolescents reported using no cannabis at all. But at the same time, frequency of cannabis use increased for adolescents who were already cannabis users.

The increased use is a problem because young people are more susceptible to the health risks of using marijuana. A study of 11,000 teens published this month found teens who use cannabis are 11 times more likely to develop a psychotic disorder than those who don’t. (Interestingly, for study participants ages 20 to 33, cannabis was not linked to higher rates of psychiatric disorders.)

The take-home message: Cannabis use is increasing among adults; among younger people, cannabis users are consuming more than they have in the past. These trends could leads to increased risk of mental health disorders.

The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University is focused on using research findings to improve health and well-being of people at all stages of life.

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Gonzales V. Raich: a Landmark Case in Federalism and Medical Marijuana

This essay about Gonzales v. Raich explores its significance in American federalism and the debate over medical marijuana. It highlights the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision that upheld federal authority to regulate locally grown marijuana, emphasizing the balance between state autonomy and federal power. The essay also discusses the evolving landscape of marijuana legalization and its implications for federal and state relations.

How it works

In the complex framework of American federalism and the ongoing debate surrounding medical marijuana, Gonzales v. Raich stands as a crucial juncture, a battlefield where constitutional interpretations collide, and a testament to the delicate equilibrium between state autonomy and federal authority.

As the new millennium dawned, medical marijuana gained traction as a potential treatment for various ailments, leading to its legalization in several states. California emerged as a pioneer, passing Proposition 215 in 1996 and spearheading medical cannabis legislation. This set the stage for a legal confrontation that reverberated through Washington, D.

C., and resonated across state capitals.

Angel Raich, a Californian suffering from severe medical conditions, depended on medical marijuana to manage her symptoms. Alongside Diane Monson, another Californian using cannabis for medicinal purposes, Raich contested the federal government’s authority to regulate marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). They argued that their local cultivation and personal use of cannabis for medical treatment fell outside federal jurisdiction, as it did not involve interstate commerce.

This dispute reached the Supreme Court in 2004 as Gonzales v. Raich, posing a fundamental question: to what extent does Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce extend to prohibiting the cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes within states that have legalized it?

In a 6-3 decision in 2005, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion against Raich and Monson. The Court ruled that Congress’s authority to regulate interstate commerce encompassed the regulation of locally grown and consumed marijuana, even if such activities had no direct impact on interstate commerce. This decision heavily relied on precedents like Wickard v. Filburn (1942), which established that intrastate activities could fall under Congress’s regulatory purview if part of a broader economic scheme.

Justice Stevens emphasized the need for a comprehensive federal regulatory approach to controlled substances, highlighting the potential impact of locally grown marijuana on the national market and federal drug law enforcement. The ruling reaffirmed federal law supremacy in areas where Congress chose to exercise its authority, thereby limiting states’ autonomy in shaping drug policy.

However, dissenting justices, led by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, expressed concerns about the expansive interpretation of federal power under the Commerce Clause. They argued that allowing Congress to regulate purely local, non-commercial activities like medical marijuana cultivation could undermine federalism and the balance of power between federal and state governments.

Gonzales v. Raich sent ripples through the medical marijuana movement and the broader debate over states’ rights versus federal authority. While reinforcing federal enforcement of drug laws, it drew criticism from medical marijuana advocates and states’ rights proponents, who viewed it as an encroachment on individual freedoms and state sovereignty.

In the years following the Supreme Court’s decision, the landscape of marijuana legalization continued to evolve, with more states defying federal prohibition to legalize medical and recreational cannabis. This dynamic prompted calls for legislative reform at the national level.

In 2009, the Obama administration issued the “Ogden Memo,” directing federal prosecutors to prioritize enforcement against major drug traffickers rather than individuals complying with state medical marijuana laws. This marked a shift in federal enforcement policy, showing some deference to state marijuana laws while maintaining federal prohibition.

Subsequent administrations adopted varying approaches to federal marijuana enforcement, reflecting the ongoing tension between state autonomy and federal authority. The legalization of recreational marijuana in states like Colorado and Washington further complicated the federal government’s stance on cannabis regulation.

In 2018, the passage of the Agriculture Improvement Act, or the Farm Bill, federally legalized hemp production, removing hemp-derived CBD from the list of controlled substances. This legislative milestone signaled increasing acceptance of cannabis-related products and paved the way for further reforms in marijuana policy.

Yet, the legacy of Gonzales v. Raich endures as a poignant reminder of the intricate interplay between federal power and states’ rights in the United States. The case encapsulates the enduring tensions within the American federal system, where conflicting visions of governance and individual liberties continue to shape law and policy. As the debate over marijuana legalization and drug policy reform persists, Gonzales v. Raich remains a pivotal touchstone in the ongoing struggle to reconcile divergent interests within the fabric of American federalism.

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Analysis of Arguments: Should Marijuana Be Legalized? Annotated Bibliography

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Title of Article #1: Green, T. V. (2021). Americans overwhelmingly say marijuana should be legal for recreational or medical use. Pew Research Center. Web.

Pro Arguments (Support for your position):

• The majority of Americans agree on the necessity to legalize marijuana.
• Its medical and recreational use is a sufficient basis for this change.

Con Arguments (Opposing Views):

• The resistance of older populations to this idea is highly possible.
• This initiative is accompanied by concerns regarding the actual use of marijuana.

Definition(s)

History/background information.

Over the past years, the number of people in the United States supporting the legalization of marijuana doubled, which means the need for action.

Facts/Statistics/Expert Testimony

Numerous surveys conducted over the past decades confirm the support of marijuana legalization by 91% of Americans, whereas the opposition does not provide substantial objections.

Title of Article #2: Lopez, G. (2019). 9 questions about marijuana legalization you were too embarrassed to ask. The Vox. Web.

• Marijuana has already been legalized in eleven states, and their experience can be adopted.
• The need in unity in legislature is required for avoiding conflicts.
• With the development of marijuana market, manufacturers might avoid responsibility.
• The possibility of addiction does not allow introducing this change all over the country.

Over time, there has been no clear opinion of legislators regarding the legalization of marijuana, and the differences are attributed to the policies of Democratic and Republican activists.

Surveys among American indicate their support of the legalization of marijuana, but marijuana laws are varied across the country.

Title of Article #3: McCarthy, N. (2019). The arguments for and against marijuana legalization in the U.S. [Infographic]. Forbes. Web.

• New population groups, including adults aged 55 and older, begin to support this idea.
• The possibility of focusing on other crimes rather than the use of marijuana seems beneficial for their investigation.
• Driver safety after using marijuana does not make this idea an optimal initiative.
• The legalization of marijuana might encourage more people to use it.

In the past, the growing popularity of marijuana resulted in the formation of supporters and opponents of its legalization.

The conducted polls showed that both supporters and opponents of the legalization of marijuana provide substantial evidence for underpinning their particular views.

Green, T. V. (2021). Americans overwhelmingly say marijuana should be legal for recreational or medical use. Pew Research Center. Web.

Lopez, G. (2019). 9 questions about marijuana legalization you were too embarrassed to ask. The Vox. Web.

McCarthy, N. (2019). The arguments for and against marijuana legalization in the U.S. [Infographic]. Forbes. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, August 1). Analysis of Arguments: Should Marijuana Be Legalized? https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-arguments-should-marijuana-be-legalized/

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1. IvyPanda . "Analysis of Arguments: Should Marijuana Be Legalized?" August 1, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-arguments-should-marijuana-be-legalized/.

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Legalizing Medical Marijuana Argumentative Essay

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Disclaimer: This paper has been submitted by a student. This is not a sample of the work written by professional academic writers.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of StudySaurus.

Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) gets its name from the Spanish word marihuana. The first time for marijuana to be used was in 1894, it came from hemp, an Asian herb. The leaves of the plant can be smoked to cause intoxication to the patient. Many people have fought against the legalization of marijuana for medical use since the use of the drug began to spread among the people. A lot of research shows that marijuana has a positive effect on the society in America. The great number of people who say that marijuana should not be legalized do so because they assume that it cannot have any good effects on the society. The fact is that they do this without having considered both sides of the debate. Although it is true that legalizing marijuana can be the cause of many crimes and injuries, the benefits that could come from it if it is authorized for use as medicine would outweigh those disadvantages. Marijuana can be used in curing deadly diseases and boost the country’s economy. This essay aims at persuading law makers in the United Sates to make the use of marijuana for both medical purposes legal.

Marijuana has been with us for many years. In the past, the plant’s leaves and flowering parts were used to treat physiological as well as psychological disorders- the seeds were used as food. Many people support the proposition that marijuana should be made legal for medicinal purposes. There are many reasons why these people do this. One such a reason is that marijuana has shown a high efficacy in the management of medical conditions. In the United States, 20 states have legalized the medical use of marijuana (Ferner 2012). The first retail stores for Marijuana in Colorado were opened for the sale of Marijuana to people who have attained the age of 21 years or higher. There are still other countries where the use of medical marijuana has been legalized. Canada is one such a country. Since its legalization, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has reported a number of testimonies showing the success of use of marijuana as medication. One testimony is that of Pariseau, a 30-yaer-old AIDS patient. Before starting using medical marijuana, Pariseau could keep neither food nor medication in his system. After he began using marijuana for medication, a report from his doctor stated “He is doing remarkably well because he can now digest his medication. The HIV has been suppressed because of his improved immune function, he has put on weight and he has learned to walk again -with a cane” (Gray, 1998).

Use of marijuana as medicine can help alleviate pain alongside other health benefits. In addition, there are no proven disadvantages that are associated with the use of marijuana as medicine (Barnes, 2017). Unlike some other drugs, marijuana used for medical purposes is not addictive. No research has ever shown that marijuana is an addictive drug- people simply use it to please themselves. Marijuana is a herbal drug that can be obtained naturally. It is considered to be very safe in managing the symptoms of various diseases and health conditions like HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, Arthritis, hepatitis C, Alzheimer’s disease and migraines as well as some psychological conditions. For a fact, doctors from both within and outside the United States have recommended the use of marijuana as medicine (Friese & Grube, 2013). Marijuana has not shown any long term effects on the cognitive processes of the individual. The only effects occur only for a short time after intoxication, but the brain is not damaged by this in any way.

The people who protest the use of marijuana for medication think of economic relief. They have brought the topic of economic relief from the legalization of marijuana many times. If we take a look at the current problems that the economy of the United Sates is facing, we realize that legalizing medical marijuana has the potential to help boost our economy. Since many Americans will now be free to use the herb, it is likely to funnel money into our economy. The history of the United States has seen similar incidences before. In the prohibition, the bootleggers issue resembles the one on marijuana. At that time, when the government lifted the ban on alcohol, more money came back into the economy. Although the use of marijuana should be legalized, it goes without saying that the use of marijuana needs to be regulated. Just like on cigarettes and alcohol, laws should be made to regulate the use of marijuana once it is made legal for medical use. (smokers should not operate machines). Also, smoking at the place of work should call for firing just like drinking would. Though the feelings of people on this subject are mixed, quite a large number of people believe that marijuana is harmless. The legislators should look at the fact that marijuana makes one to be relaxed and less motivated. This would somehow link to the effect that it would have on the workforce and businesses in general. Lawmakers have to make laws that will govern how businesses that plan to sell only marijuana should operate- they have to determine its use and how much the business owner is going to be taxed for selling marijuana.

The natural herb could generate a lot of money for the economy if the right infrastructure were laid down showing how the drug should be used. Therefore, lawmakers should regulate the use and the sales of the drug. Legalizing marijuana at the federal level would give a large new stream of revenue. Although it may not be possible to know the size of the market for marijuana now and what may happen to the demand and the price for the drug under different legalization levels, we know that the legalization can cause a positive effect on the revenue income and the tax from sales (Ferner, 2012).

The economic benefits of marijuana legalization are not only from taxes- both the local and state governments would save a lot of money that is being spend currently on the regulation of the use of marijuana. Colorado and Washington states (which have made it legal to use marijuana for medical purposes) will serve as the testers for the other states when it comes to the possible positive effect on the economy of the whole country if all the states make it legal to use marijuana in treatment of diseases. It is estimated that Washington will generate up to $1.9 billion in a period of five years because it made marijuana legal. Marijuana legalization, nonetheless, should be made for use as medication and also be allowed for sale in retail shops so that if one person needs to use this medication but cannot get it from the hospital because it is so expensive there that they cannot afford it, they can obtain cheaper options from the dealers and stores to manage their conditions.

Although there are states that have legalized the use of marijuana as medication and have allowed people who possess the permit to sell it to the public, the laws that allow for this in such states have been ruled out by the federal government as being unconstitutional and therefore illegal. Majority of the people in America favor the use of marijuana for medical purposes and have expresses their support by voting. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration still can arrest and impose charges on any people who are aught trading in this substance in accordance with the act that deals with controlled substances (CSA). The laws that are in place in the United States are not in support of the demands of the people. This shows that more people are involved in the use of marijuana than the records show. The problem therefore comes in that while the substance is being sold and used all over the country, nothing comes from it in terms of income tax to help in boosting the economy of the country.

Just like all controversial topics, there are opponents. The first point presented by the opponents is that when smoked, marijuana causes a number of side effects- stunted growth and cancer. However, smoking is not the only way in which marijuana can be taken, one can take it orally or intravenously. These methods of administration will get rid of the problems associated with smoking the drug. Another claim they make is that despite being natural, hemp has harmful chemicals that can damage the user. They claim that THC that is contained in marijuana is harmful to the body. They favor the use of Marinol which also contains THC. In addition, technology can be used to separate the compounds present in the plant, it can also be used to remove he chemicals that are toxic and breed plants that do not have the chemical.

The opponents also claim that the use of marijuana also results in abstinent effects. Although Renard, Krebs, Le Pen & Jayin their 2014 study that there are some short-term effects on adolescents that are associated with marijuana, other later studies contradict this. These studies claim that no clearly defined relationship has been found between the use of marijuana and rates of addiction. According to drugabuse.gov, the use of marijuana does not cause the individual to use other drugs and there are very few withdrawal symptoms associated with marijuana. It is therefore evident that the claims of the opponents are not based on facts and therefore they are not valid.

It does not seem reasonable that an herb that has been used by people since time immemorial because of its medicinal value has been made legal in the past few years just because of the people who have used it as a narcotic to harm their bodies. It is true to say that marijuana is not abused as much as other opium-derived drugs that are legal like ketamine and oxycodone. It is therefore unfair that marijuana, which is more valuable as medicine, is illegal while these other drugs are legal and are sold all over the country freely.

In conclusion, Marijuana is a very efficacious drug for medical use and therefore it needs to be legalized. We should stop grouping marijuana, a useful drug, with narcotics such as heroin and cocaine, it should instead be grouped together with other drugs that are used for the management of serious health conditions such as Adderall. Legalizing marijuana will boost the economy of our country by creating jobs to thousands of people in the United Sates who would otherwise be economically unproductive. My research shows that the positive effects of legalizing marijuana by far outweigh the negative impacts that could arise. Besides boosting the economy and keeping it strong, it can be used to manage health conditions that have previously been difficult to manage. Whether it is made legal or it remains illegal, people will still use it. Research has shown that the illegal drug whose use is commonest is marijuana. All the fifty states in the United States of America should legalize marijuana to help out people who are struggling with medical conditions that can seriously damage their health if not treated and which can be managed effectively by the use of marijuana. Marijuana can replace many things that are harmful to the environment and thus help to save the environment. There would be a tremendous decrease in violence and crime. Although a lot of people think that marijuana is harmful, I believe it can really help our society in this time of need.

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How marijuana’s reclassification could change U.S. drug policy

Amna Nawaz Amna Nawaz

Azhar Merchant Azhar Merchant

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-marijuanas-reclassification-could-change-u-s-drug-policy

This month, President Biden announced the Justice Department is planning a shift in the federal approach to marijuana, reclassifying it from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III. This would put it in the same category as Tylenol and ketamine. It would classify it as a drug that has the potential for abuse but has medicinal benefits. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Natalie Fertig of Politico.

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Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Amna Nawaz:

This month, President Biden announced the Department of Justice is planning a historic shift in the federal approach to marijuana, reclassifying it from what's known as a Schedule I drug to Schedule III.

This would make federal treatment of marijuana far less restrictive and consider it less dangerous, putting it in the same category as Tylenol with codeine and ketamine. It would classify it as a drug that has potential for abuse, while still being acknowledged for its medicinal benefits.

The president talked about the decision in a video posted on X.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: Far too many lives have been upended because of failed approach to marijuana. And I'm committed to righting those wrongs. You have my word on it.

Joining us now is Natalie Fertig. She's federal cannabis policy reporter for Politico.

Natalie, thanks for being here.

Natalie Fertig, Federal Cannabis Policy Reporter, Politico:

Thanks for having me.

So this is the next step in a reclassification process that the president began back in 2022, right? So walk us through the timeline here. Where in that process are we now?

Natalie Fertig:

So, we just began a 60-day comment period, where the DOJ said, we have now made our formal decision. We have issued a draft rule that we're going to reschedule cannabis.

So the 60 days started last week, and now this could end five months from now or this could end six or seven years from now, depending on if there's legal challenges in that process.

OK, so still a lot we don't yet know, right?

We should note, we have seen a real sea change when it comes to cannabis legalization in America over the past decade or plus.

If you take a look at the map, some 24 states have legalized marijuana possession for adults. Some 38 states have established medical marijuana programs. So more than half of all Americans now live in states where marijuana is recreational, legal at the state level.

So what does this classification or what would this classification change in a practical way?

There's a lot of things that it would not change, actually. But the main difference that it would have is on the cannabis industry itself in the states where it is legal.

It would change the amount of taxes that they have to pay, meaning there might be more money in the cannabis industry's pocket, which means they could expand in legal states.

And what does that mean? There's some, what, 15,000 cannabis dispensaries in the country right now.

So, potential tax changes? Does it change how they interact with banks or anything else?

It's not clear exactly how the big banks will approach the change in schedule. That's one of those remain to be seen once this — all the dust settles.

But what — it would have an impact on the amount of taxes that they pay.

It's also been reported that dispensaries would have to register with the DEA, like other pharmacies would. Is that true? And how would that change the industry?

So, under Schedule III or under Schedule I, where they currently are, they need to register with the DEA. They do not currently. And so one of the other questions of rescheduling is, will the DEA start to enforce some of the rules that the cannabis industry is currently already breaking, like getting registered with the DEA?

So this is something President Biden mentioned in that video he released too, was the impact on the criminal justice system, in particular, people who have already been convicted of marijuana-related crimes.

What would this change mean for them, either retroactively or people who are currently incarcerated?

One of the biggest criticisms of Biden's rescheduling movement is that it doesn't have a big impact on people who have criminal records, especially at the state level.

The majority of people who have criminal records for cannabis are in the state criminal justice system, not in the federal criminal justice system. Biden did issue some pardons for people with low-level nonviolent marijuana offenses, but that's just a couple thousand people.

We do know the proposal needs to move through the DEA. How are they likely to look at this? Do we know if that proposal is going to move through, and when would we see that kind of approval?

Yes, so what we just saw recently was the DEA and the DOJ coming out and saying we have looked at the review that was sent to us by HHS, and we are recommending a reschedule.

People get to comment on that. There might be some legal challenges to that. And so, when the dust settles, there would need to be some big changes or big challenges for the DEA to change its mind on that. It's likely to be a reschedule. But then that reschedule is also likely to get challenged in the courts, which means in the end this might be up to the court system.

It's so fascinating too when you take a look back and you see the America in which this is all unfolding.

We can now say — there was a study published in the journal "Addiction" last month that showed marijuana use now surpasses daily alcohol consumption in the U.S. for the first time in history. And Americans have very different views when it comes to pot right now.

You look at the latest Gallup numbers from a poll last year, found some 70 percent of adults now support legalization. That is the highest number ever reported in that survey. What does your reporting tell you about the why behind all of this, why President Biden is pushing for these changes now?

Well, a big part of that sea change has come from the youngest generation. Gen Z and millennials, my generation, are much more likely to be consuming cannabis than generations before them.

And they're also much more likely to poll in favor of cannabis. And Biden is heading into a really important election right now. He's not necessarily doing as well among those voters, the younger voters, as he would like to. So there's some hope that, potentially, amongst Democrats, something like this with marijuana could push some of those voters that are skeptical or annoyed or frustrated with the president to turn out to vote in November.

We will see if it does, in fact.

Natalie Fertig, federal cannabis policy reporter for Politico, great to have you here. Thanks so much.

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

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Research examines how recreational marijuana legalization affects a state's college enrollment

New research has revealed up to a 9% increase in college first-year enrollments in US states that have legalized recreational marijuana compared with states without such legalization. The study, which is published in Economic Inquiry , found that the increase was from out-of-state enrollments, with early adopter states and public non-research institutions experiencing the most pronounced increases.

Recreational marijuana legalization did not negatively impact degree completion or graduation rate, and it did not affect college prices, quality, or in‐state enrollment.

The findings suggest that some students perceive recreational marijuana legalization as a positive factor that influences their college choice.

"Future research should focus on how this policy impacts peer dynamics and the selection of academic disciplines, with a special emphasis on differentiating between STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] and non-STEM fields," said the study's author Ahmed El Fatmaoui, MBA, a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma.

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Commentary | John Morgan: Time to legalize marijuana and…

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22 Investigates: What are the health risks for marijuana?

by Bob Montgomery, WSBT 22 Morning Anchor

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WSBT) — The state of Indiana could be on the verge of working toward legalizing marijuana.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been slowly pushing the idea now that the federal government is relaxing the classification of the drug legally and medically.

The candidates for Indiana now appear more open to at least exploring the possibility of legalization.

Michigan and every other state surrounding Indiana have had medical and/or recreational pot legalized for years.

22 Investigates the one question surrounding regular pot use that remains a mystery.

WSBT22’s Bob Montgomery reports even the medical community doesn’t have a firm answer yet... Is it Safe?

Regular marijuana users have long sworn by the positive impact pot has in treating everything from anxiety and stress to nausea.

Many of the beliefs about safety however are based on studies from decades ago when marijuana was very different.

"The cannabis previously used in the past, we think about the 1960s and 70s, where it was more frequent use the percentage of THC was like 2 or 3 percent. Now, the regular percentage of THC in a regular marijuana cannabis product is about 15 to 20 percent pretty regularly." said Dr. Brittany Tayler, MSU Public Health

THC is the active chemical in pot that gives people the high they experience.

With more states like Michigan, legalizing marijuana use newer, more relevant studies are beginning to come out.

RELATED: Michigan’s booming marijuana industry and its local impacts

A Central Michigan University study found women who use cannabis during the first months of pregnancy run a higher risk of having a low-birth-weight baby.

Another study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association showed an up to 42% increased risk of heart attack and stroke with daily use especially through smoking.

This is why Michigan State University is opening a CALM Lab.

CALM stands for Cannabis Legalization in Michigan.

This lab will look at the cardiovascular impact of longer term, regular use of modern cannabis.

“Definitely cannabis has an effect on the cardiovascular system. We have acute administration or short-term administration of cannabis we see an increase in heart rate and we see changes in blood pressure. Whether this is sustained over heavy use is something we don’t know,” said Dr. Omayma Alshaarawy, Dir. of MSU CALM lab.

Lynn Roy is an assistant Clinical Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the IU Medical School at Notre Dame.

He says marijuana absolutely impacts the chemical makeup of the human body some of it for the better.

“The normal effects of cannabis are going to be a combination of what we see with alcohol, some sedatives, and hallucinogens. You’re going to get the anxiolytic effects, reducing anxiety, reduce tension and stress relief,” said Dr. Lynn Roy, Asst. Prof. of Pharmacology, IU Medicine.

Both Roy and Dr. Tayler agree on a dangerous misconception about marijuana...

“That it’s natural and therefore it’s safe. Natural doesn’t equal safe. It just doesn’t. The difference between medicine and poison is a very fine line,” said Roy.

Another area of agreement is the misconception smoking pot is safer than smoking regular tobacco cigarettes.

"You’re getting those carcinogens, those hydrocarbons, you’re getting tar in fact, you may be getting more,” said Roy.

More so because most pot smokers inhale the smoke and keep it inhaled longer than cigarette smokers.

He says vaping holds the same concerns.

That leaves edibles and oils or ointments safer but with their own risks.

“People will take an edible and be like ‘this edible is terrible, I’m not feeling anything,’ and they take more. And then they’re in trouble because then they just get hit by a freight train,” said Roy.

Ultimately the jury is still out on the safety of long-term regular use.

In fact, Roy says there's no clear agreement on what constitutes long-term, regular use because today's dosages so widely vary.

“Is that really the takeaway from the whole thing, we just don’t know yet?’ Yes, that, that really is’on every level?’ on every level,” said Roy.

All the experts in this piece acknowledge people can get relief for all sorts of health problems using cannabis.

They also agree you need to work closely with your doctor and stick to exactly how much is determined right for you.

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More Reasons States Should Not Legalize Marijuana: Medical and Recreational Marijuana: Commentary and Review of the Literature

Recent years have seen substantial shifts in cultural attitudes towards marijuana for medical and recreational use. Potential problems with the approval, production, dispensation, route of administration, and negative health effects of medical and recreational marijuana are reviewed. Medical marijuana should be subject to the same rigorous approval process as other medications prescribed by physicians. Legalizing recreational marijuana may have negative public health effects.

Introduction

Recent years have seen a cultural shift in attitudes towards marijuana. At the time of this writing, medical marijuana is legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia; recreational marijuana is now legal in Washington and Colorado. A substantial and growing literature documents legalized marijuana may have adverse effects on individual and public health.

Medical Use of Marijuana

The term ‘medical marijuana’ implies that marijuana is like any other medication prescribed by a physician. Yet the ways in which medical marijuana has been approved, prescribed, and made available to the public are very different from other commercially available prescription drugs. These differences pose problems unrecognized by the public and by many physicians.

Lack of Evidence for Therapeutic Benefit

In the United States, commercially available drugs are subject to rigorous clinical trials to evaluate safety and efficacy. Data appraising the effectiveness of marijuana in conditions such as HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, and chemotherapy-associated vomiting is limited and often only anecdotal. 1 , 2 To date, there has been only one randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of smoked marijuana for any of its potential indications, which showed that marijuana was superior to placebo but inferior to Ondansetron in treating nausea. 3 Recent reviews by the Cochrane Collaboration find insufficient evidence to support the use of smoked marijuana for a number of potential indications, including pain related to rheumatoid arthritis, 4 dementia, 5 ataxia or tremor in multiple sclerosis, 6 and cachexia and other symptoms in HIV/AIDS. 2 This does not mean, of course, that components of marijuana do not have potential therapeutic effects to alleviate onerous symptoms of these diseases; but, given the unfavorable side effect profile of marijuana, the evidence to justify use in these conditions is still lacking.

Contamination, Concentration & Route of Administration

Unlike any other prescription drug used for medical purposes, marijuana is not subject to central regulatory oversight. It is grown in dispensaries, which, depending on the state, have regulatory standards ranging from strict to almost non-existent. The crude marijuana plant and its products may be contaminated with fungus or mold. 7 This is especially problematic for immunocompromised patients, 8 including those with HIV/AIDS or cancer. 9 Furthermore, crude marijuana contains over 60 active cannabinoids, 10 few of which are well studied. Marijuana growers often breed their plants to alter the concentrations of different chemicals compounds. For instance, the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient, is more than 20-fold more than in marijuana products used several decades ago. Without rigorous clinical trials, we have no way of knowing which combinations of cannabinoids may be therapeutic and which may be deleterious. As marijuana dispensaries experiment by breeding out different cannabinoids in order to increase the potency of THC, there may be unanticipated negative and lasting effects for individuals who smoke these strains.

Marijuana is the only ‘medication’ that is smoked, and, while still incompletely understood, there are legitimate concerns about long-term effects of marijuana smoke on the lungs. 11 , 12 Compared with cigarette smoke, marijuana smoke can result in three times the amount of inhaled tar and four times the amount of inhaled carbon-monoxide. 13 Further, smoking marijuana has been shown to be a risk factor for lung cancer in many 14 , 15 but not all 16 studies.

High Potential for Diversion

In some states, patients are permitted to grow their own marijuana. In addition to contributing to problems such as contamination and concentration as discussed above, this practice also invites drug diversion. Patients seeking to benefit financially may bypass local regulations of production and sell home-grown marijuana at prices lower than dispensaries. We do not allow patient to grow their own opium for treatment of chronic pain; the derivatives of opium, like marijuana, are highly addictive and thus stringently regulated.

Widespread “Off-label” Use

FDA-approved forms of THC (Dronabinol) and a THC-analog (Nabilone), both available orally, already exist. Indications for these drugs are HIV/AIDS cachexia and chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting. Unlike smoked, crude marijuana, these medications have been subject to randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trials. Yet despite these limited indications where marijuana compounds have a proven but modest effect in high-quality clinical trials, medical marijuana is used overwhelmingly for non-specific pain or muscle spasms. Recent data from Colorado show that 94% of patients with medical marijuana cards received them for treatment of “severe pain.” 17 Similar trends are evident in California. 18 Evidence for the benefit of marijuana in neuropathic pain is seen in many 19 - 21 but not all 22 clinical trials. There is no high-quality evidence, however, that the drug reduces non-neuropathic pain; this remains an indication for which data sufficient to justify the risks of medical marijuana is lacking. 4 , 23 – 25

If marijuana is to be ‘prescribed’ by physicians and used as a medication, it should be subject to the same rigorous approval process that other commercially available drugs undergo. Potentially therapeutic components of marijuana should be investigated, but they should only be made available to the public after adequately powered, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have demonstrated efficacy and acceptable safety profiles. Furthermore, these compounds should be administered in a way that poses less risk than smoking and dispensed via standardized and FDA-regulated pharmacies to ensure purity and concentration. Bypassing the FDA and approving ‘medicine’ at the ballot box sets a dangerous precedent. Physicians should be discouraged from recommending medical marijuana. Alternatively, consideration can be given to prescribing FDA-approved medicines (Dronabinol or Cesamet) as the purity and concentration of these drugs are assured and their efficacy and side effect profiles have been well documented in rigorous clinical trials.

Recreational Marijuana

The question of recreational marijuana is a broader social policy consideration involving implications of the effects of legalization on international drug cartels, domestic criminal justice policy, and federal and state tax revenue in addition to public health. Yet physicians, with a responsibility for public health, are experts with a vested interest in this issue. Recent legislation, reflecting changes in the public’s attitudes towards marijuana, has permitted the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington. Unfortunately, the negative health consequences of the drug are not prominent in the debate over legalizing marijuana for recreational use. In many cases, these negative effects are more pronounced in adolescents. A compelling argument, based on these negative health effects in both adolescents and adults, can be made to abort the direction society is moving with regards to the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Myth: Marijuana is Not Addictive

A growing myth among the public is that marijuana is not an addictive substance. Data clearly show that about 10% of those who use cannabis become addicted; this number is higher among adolescents. 26 Users who seek treatment for marijuana addiction average 10 years of daily use. 27 A withdrawal syndrome has been described, consisting of anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, depression, and changes in appetite 28 and affects as many as 44% of frequent users, 29 contributing to the addictive potential of the drug. This addictive potential may be less than that of opiates; but the belief, especially among adolescents, that the drug is not addictive is misguided.

Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders

Marijuana has been consistently shown to be a risk factor for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. 30 – 32 The association between marijuana and schizophrenia fulfills many, but not all, of the standard criteria for the epidemiological establishment of causation, including experimental evidence, 33 , 34 temporal relationship, 35 – 38 biological gradient, 30 , 31 , 39 and biological plausibility. 40 Genetic variation may explain why marijuana use does not strongly fulfill remaining criteria, such as strength of association and specificity. 41 , 42 As these genetic variants are explored and further characterized, marijuana use may be shown to cause or precipitate schizophrenia in a genetically vulnerable population. The risk of psychotic disorder is more pronounced when marijuana is used at an earlier age. 32 , 43

There is some evidence that compounds naturally found in marijuana have therapeutic benefit for symptoms of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. If these compounds are to be used under the auspices of ‘medical marijuana,’ they should undergo the same rigorous approval process that other medications prescribed by physicians, including randomized, placebo- and active-controlled trials to evaluate safety and efficacy, not by popular vote or state legislature.

Effects on Cognition

Early studies suggested cognitive declines associated with marijuana (especially early and heavy use); these declines persisted long after the period of acute cannabis intoxication. 44 – 46 Recently, Meier and colleagues analyzed data from a prospective study which followed subjects from birth to age 38; their findings yielded supportive evidence that cannabis use, when begun during adolescence, was associated with cognitive impairment in multiple areas, including executive functioning, processing speed, memory, perceptual reasoning, and verbal comprehension. 47 Rogeberg 48 criticized the study’s methodology, claiming that the results were confounded by differences in socioeconomic status; this claim, however, was based on sub-analyses that used very small numbers. Additional sub-analyses 49 of the original study cohort showed that marijuana was just as prevalent in populations of higher socioeconomic status, suggesting that socioeconomic status was not a confounding variable. Any epidemiological study is subject to confounding biases and future research will be needed to clarify and quantify the relationship between cognitive decline and adolescent marijuana use. However, the findings of the original study by Meier et al show there is indeed an independent relationship between loss of intelligence and adolescent marijuana use. This finding, moreover, is consistent with prior studies. 44

Other Negative Health Effects

Substantial evidence exists suggesting that marijuana is harmful to the respiratory system. It is associated with symptoms of obstructive and inflammatory lung disease, 11 , 50 an increased risk of lung cancer, 14 , 15 and it is suspected to be associated with reduced pulmonary function in heavy users. 51 Further, its use has been associated with harmful effects to other organ systems, including the reproductive, 52 gastrointestinal, 53 and immunologic 10 , 54 systems.

Social Safety Implications: Effects on Driving

Marijuana impairs the ability to judge time, distance, and speed; it slows reaction time and reduces ability to track moving objects. 55 , 56 In many studies of drug-related motor vehicle fatalities, marijuana is the most common drug detected except for alcohol. 57 , 58 Based on post-mortem studies, Couch et al determined that marijuana was likely an impairing factor in as many fatal accidents as alcohol. 59 One study showed that in motor vehicle accidents where the driver was killed, recent marijuana use was detected in 12% of cases. 57 Other research confirms a significantly increased risk of motor vehicle fatalities in association with acute cannabis intoxication. 60

Risk Perception and Use in Adolescents

Marijuana use among adolescents has been increasing. Data that has tracked risk perception and use of marijuana among adolescents over decades clearly shows an inverse relationship; as adolescent risk perception wanes, marijuana use increases. 61 As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, risk perception is expected to decrease, causing the prevalence of use among adolescent to continue to rise. This is among the most concerning of issues about the drug’s legalization because so many of the negative effects of marijuana—including cognitive impairment and risk for short- and long-term psychosis— are heightened when used during adolescence.

There is some evidence that compounds naturally found in marijuana have therapeutic benefit for symptoms of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. If these compounds are to be used under the auspices of ‘medical marijuana,’ they should undergo the same rigorous approval process that other medications prescribed by physicians, including randomized, placebo- and active-controlled trials to evaluate safety and efficacy, not by popular vote or state legislature. Furthermore, these therapeutic compounds should be administered via a route that minimizes long-term health risk (i.e., via oral pill) and should be dispensed by centrally regulated pharmacies to ensure the purity and concentration of the drug and allow for the recall of contaminated batches.

Marijuana for recreational use will have many adverse health effects. The drug is addictive, with mounting evidence for the existence of a withdrawal syndrome. Furthermore, it has been shown to have adverse effects on mental health, intelligence (including irreversible declines in cognition), and the respiratory system. Driving while acutely intoxicated with marijuana greatly increases the risk of fatal motor vehicle collision. Legalization for recreational use may have theoretical (but still unproven) beneficial social effects regarding issues such as domestic criminal justice policy, but these effects will not come without substantial public health and social costs. Currently there is a lack of resources devoted to educating physicians about this most commonly used illicit substance. The potential benefits and significant risks associated with marijuana use should be taught in medical schools and residency programs throughout the country.

Samuel T. Wilkinson, MD, is in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Ct.

Contact: [email protected]

None reported.

Oklahoma medical marijuana for beginners: Navigating THC, pre-rolls, edibles and terpenes

About six years ago, Oklahomans voted to legalize the medical use of marijuana. Since then, the state has become home to more dispensaries than any other state in the country.

Hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans have been issued a medical marijuana license since 2018, but if you're just obtaining yours, here's a guide on medical marijuana:

When can I buy medical marijuana?

Oklahoma has over 2,800 licensed medical cannabis dispensary locations.

Dispensaries in Oklahoma can only retail medical cannabis to patients with valid medical marijuana cards.

Use this link to find a dispensary near you: https://oklahomastatecannabis.org/dispensaries

So, what is cannabis?

Cannabis  is the catch-all term for a family of plants within the  Cannabis sativa  family. All products harvested from this plant are considered cannabis. The plant contains about 540 chemicals and is versatile. It can be smoked or made into butter, candy, drinks, topical oils, lotions, vapes and other products.

While there is some debate on whether to use the term cannabis or marijuana, people will know what you're talking about when you use either term.

Are THC and CBD different?

Both THC and CBD are derived from the cannabis sativa plant and are considered cannabinoids, but they affect users in different ways.

THC , the naturally occurring ingredient in marijuana that produces the "high" feeling, is a psychoactive that can affect mood, time perception and heightened senses. CBD, on the other hand, does not produce a "high," but instead promotes relaxation and can be used in medicinal settings for pain management, nausea and insomnia.

THC content in cannabis products varies widely, so it helps to know the full spectrum of the THC scale whether you're a beginner or an expert user. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) established the  standard unit  of THC at 5mg.

Generally speaking, marijuana flower that's between 7% and 11.99% will produce a mild effect for users. Flower with a THC content between 12% and 16.9% is considered to have medium potency, and flower with a THC content between 17% and 20% is considered high potency.

Marijuana has a THC limit of roughly 35%.

While it's good to have these numbers and percentages in mind while shopping, keep in mind that each person's body breaks down THC differently, and some may have different tolerance levels.

CBD  can be found in certain extracts, oils, topical products and vapes, and is known more for its medicinal benefits, such as pain management. CBD is also used to manage epilepsy and is found in the FDA-backed prescription oil called  Epidolex . Researchers are still learning more about CBD and its potential usage.

What are terpenes?

The different aromas that accompany the vast strains of marijuana are due to the naturally occurring compound called  terpenes.

This chemical is found in a variety of animals and plants (besides marijuana) including, lavender oil, sage and thyme. Terpenes also serve the practical purpose of protecting the marijuana plant from predators while in the wild or making itself more attractive to particular creatures.

Cannabis contains over 150 types of terpenes, and the stronger, more powerful ones come together to give the different cannabis strains a unique scent profile and taste.

Different factors can affect the terpene profile of a particular plant, such as whether or not it was grown indoors or outdoors, the type of soil used, the types of plants grown nearby, and a host of other elements. The popular  Cherry Pie strain,  for example, is known for its sweet, earthy and herbal aroma.

What are edibles?

Edibles are foods with cannabis baked, cooked or infused into them. Dispensaries sell a range of these products, including cookies, gummies, candy bars and drinks.

Be careful when biting into the first edible your friend gives you. Different products have different levels of THC, so make sure you ask about the dosage before taking a bite, or you may be in for a long day and a bad high.

Additionally, edibles take longer to have a noticeable effect compared to smoking, which may prompt you to eat more so it hits faster. Instead, this will cause the effect to hit you harder and, depending on your tolerance, may result in a bad experience. When it comes to consuming edibles, patience and restraint is key.

When buying edibles, the main thing to look for is the number of milligrams (mg) in the package. For example, a 100 mg package of 10 edibles means the whole package contains 100mg and each piece is 10 mg.

For a general idea of dosages to take:

• 1 mg to 2.5 mg is considered a "microdose" and is good for first-time users. You may feel more relaxed, and any pain or nausea you may be experiencing could fade away without you feeling high.
• A "moderate" dose sits between 2.5 and 15 mg and is for more experienced users. This dosage will produce a high and may leave users feeling more social, goofy and even euphoric. It's also great for people with persistent sleep or pain issues.
• A "high" dosage, anywhere from 20 mg to 50 mg, is reserved for seasoned consumers and should be taken with caution due to the punch that it packs.

The amount of time it takes to feel the effects will vary from person to person and depends on several factors, including tolerance, and digestion time. This also applies to how long the highs last. While the high generally lasts longer than when smoking (typically 6 to 8 hours), it all boils down to each person's metabolism.

Sativa, Indica, or Hybrid: What's the difference?

You may have heard about different strains of cannabis and the effects that they can have. While they all produce a high, each provides a unique experience that may be better suited to certain situations than others.

Cannabis sativa  is usually found growing in hot and dry places such as Africa, South America and parts of Asia. This strain gives users a cerebral high and produces an energetic feeling. Since it has stimulating effects, experts say it's better for daytime use. This strain generally has more CBD compared to the indica strain. Some other effects from consuming sativa include:

• An overall uplifting mood
• Increased creativity and ideas
• Increased energy and more apt to socialization

There are  hundreds of sativa products  sold by different dispensaries. Sour Diesel, Durban Poison, Green Crack, Blue Dream and Strawberry Cough are just a few of the varieties you can experiment with to find the right high.

You may have heard some people refer to the  indica strain  as "in-da-couch." That's because this popular strain is known for giving users a body high and is favored by most for its relaxing and drowsy effect. It can also help users manage symptoms like insomnia, nausea and pain, and can also help increase appetite (commonly known as the munchies).

Just like sativa, indica also boasts  hundreds of different strains  to choose from:

• Grandaddy Purple (known for its sweet berry scent and relaxing effects)
• Ice Cream Cake (users have said this strain may cause some giggly euphoria)
• Purple Punch

Hybrids are strains that blend both sativa and indica together, offering users something from both worlds.

Cultivators and growers take the best of both strains and combine them to create unique experiences for users. You can usually find hybrid strains at any dispensary with a descriptor of what it's been cross-bred with and what effects will be most prominent upon consumption.

Ways to roll up: Blunts and joints

The most common way people enjoy Mary Jane is by smoking it. There's an innocuous debate within the cannabis community about what's better: joints or blunts. You can also smoke from an array of one-hitters, water pipes or glassware.

While smoking either of these will result in a high, there are key differences between these two methods of smoking, some with more health risks than others.

Blunts  are cigars that have had the tobacco removed and replaced with marijuana. These can be purchased at any convenience store or gas station for $1 or less and come in different flavors.

Blunts provide a thicker, slower burn and are one of the most popular ways to enjoy smoking. A blunt can hold between one and two grams of weed when wrapped. You may also hear blunts referred to as "Backwoods" or "Swisher Sweets," which are two popular brands used to smoke.

Blunts also burn slower compared to joints and tend to last longer.

Since blunts come with tobacco, they do provide a more enhanced experience when smoking. However, keep in mind that you are also adding nicotine to the experience, which in turn can become addictive and bring its own health complications.

A joint is  simply hand-rolled marijuana  inside rolling papers that doesn't include tobacco. You can find rolling papers at your local smoke shop and some gas stations. Most joints aren't that large and contain about one-third of a gram of weed, but can have more depending on the size of the paper.

Joints don't come with additional substances like blunts, so smokers tend to report feeling the actual effect of the strain they're smoking. There are also fewer health risks when compared to blunts.

Whether you choose to roll up with a blunt or a joint, using either of these requires knowing how to properly roll them to get the most out of your weed. Check out this article by  Verts Dispensary  to learn how to roll properly.

Many dispensaries also sell pre-rolled joints.

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Cannabis Tops Alcohol as Americans’ Daily Drug of Choice

A new study shows a growing number of people are regularly using cannabis, while frequent alcohol consumption has remained stable.

By Christina Caron

For the first time on record, cannabis has outpaced alcohol as the daily drug of choice for Americans.

In 2022 there were 17.7 million people who reported using cannabis either every day or nearly every day, compared with 14.7 million who reported using alcohol with the same frequency, according to a study, published on Wednesday in the journal Addiction that analyzed data from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

While far more people drink than use cannabis, drinking frequently has become slightly less common than it was around 15 years ago, the study found. But the proportion of people in the U.S. who use cannabis frequently has increased 15-fold in the three decades since 1992, when daily cannabis use hit a low point.

Cannabis legalization has also rapidly accelerated since the ’90s. The drug is now legal for recreational use in 24 states and Washington, D.C. , and for medical use in 38 states and D.C.

The sharp increase in the prevalence of high-frequency cannabis use over the last three decades might partly be attributed to a growing acceptance of the drug, said Jonathan P. Caulkins, a professor of public policy at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. And because the survey data was self-reported, people may now feel more comfortable disclosing how often they use it.

Even so, “I don’t think that for most daily or near-daily users it is a health-promoting activity,” he added. “For some, it’s truly harmful.”

Several experts who were not involved in the research said the study’s findings were concerning. Those in favor of legalizing cannabis have argued that making the drug widely available would draw people away from the harms of alcohol, said Beatriz Carlini, a research associate professor in the psychiatry department of the University of Washington in Seattle.

But the study’s data, which shows only a slight decline in frequent alcohol use, suggests this has not been the case.

“It is disheartening,” she said.

Dr. Carlini and others noted that the concentrations of THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana, have increased dramatically over the years.

In 1995, the concentration of THC in cannabis samples seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration was about 4 percent. By 2021, it was about 15 percent . And now cannabis manufacturers are extracting THC to make oils, edibles, wax, sugar-size crystals and glass-like products called shatter with THC levels that can exceed 95 percent.

In the last decade , research has shown that frequent cannabis use — and particularly the use of high-potency products with levels of THC greater than 10 percent — is a risk factor for the onset of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.

“But that isn’t to say that use less frequent — monthly or yearly — is necessarily safe,” said Dr. Michael Murphy, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.

“As we see higher rates of cannabis use in young people, I expect to see higher rates of psychotic disorders,” he said.

The risks of developing psychotic symptoms are higher for those who use cannabis before age 25, people who use it frequently, those with a genetic predisposition (for example, a parent or sibling with a psychotic disorder) or individuals who experienced stressful events like abuse, poverty or neglect during childhood.

In states that have legalized cannabis for recreational use, anyone 21 and over can purchase it.

Those who use cannabis frequently are also at risk of developing cannabis addiction as well as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition that causes recurrent vomiting, the experts said.

This latest study arrives on the heels of the Biden administration’s move last week to downgrade marijuana from the most restrictive category of drugs, known as Schedule I, to Schedule III, which includes drugs thought to have a low-to-moderate risk of abuse.

The survey did not collect information about the concentrations of THC in the products purchased by frequent users or note how often the respondents used cannabis each day.

“A lot of people go home and have a vape after work or take a gummy to go to sleep at night,” said Aaron Smith, the co-founder and chief executive of the National Cannabis Industry Association. He didn’t see that kind of casual daily use as a problem, he added.

At the same time, there may be young people who are using throughout the day “and are exposing themselves to a lot more THC than those people who are just taking a puff a day,” said Ziva D. Cooper, the director of the Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The mental health and the physical health outcomes are probably going to vary drastically when you look at those different groups of people.”

Christina Caron is a Times reporter covering mental health. More about Christina Caron