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Medical Marijuana

Tens of thousands of seriously ill Americans endure severe pain and suffering that could be eased by the medicinal use of marijuana.
For cancer and HIV/AIDS patients, marijuana can effectively treat nausea, vomiting and lost appetite caused by chemotherapy and medications. For glaucoma patients, it reduces buildup of pressure in the eye, alleviating pain and slowing vision loss. For multiple sclerosis patients, it lessens muscle pain and spasticity and relieves tremors and unsteadiness. For some epileptics, it prevents seizures. And for many other medical conditions, marijuana alleviates chronic, debilitating pain. It is simply inhumane to stand between suffering people and a medication that can help them.
Medical professionals support patients’ legal access to medical marijuana.
Medical professionals and public health officials support the legalization of medical marijuana for patients suffering from particular illnesses. Organizations that favor medical marijuana include the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, Federation of American Scientists, Lymphoma Foundation of America, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Individual doctors have recommended marijuana therapy to their patients for years. In fact, government-sponsored reports have found marijuana to be an effective and acceptably safe medicine for many years. Most notably, a 1999 Institute of Medicine study reported that “...the adverse effects of marijuana are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications.”1 It is irrational to forbid doctors to prescribe marijuana while permitting them to prescribe powerful addictive drugs like morphine and OxyContin.
Numerous studies agree that marijuana prohibition is expensive and ineffective.
A June 2005 study by a Harvard professor—and endorsed by the winners of the Nobel prize in economics—concluded that legal regulation of marijuana would save states $5.3 billion in law enforcement costs.2 A May 2005 report by Citizens Against Government Waste found that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s campaign against medical marijuana laws is “...an infringement upon states’ rights and a blatant misuse of tax dollars.”3 The American Enterprise Institute—a well-known conservative think tank—cited a lack of evidence of the effectiveness of tough drug laws to declare anti-drug efforts to be failures.4
States can help the users of medical marijuana despite federal law.
Federal law prohibits the possession of marijuana, even for medical use. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that the federal government may prosecute individuals who grow marijuana plants for medicinal uses.5 But 99 percent of marijuana arrests are made by state authorities enforcing state law.6 Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2003 blocked federal authorities from punishing doctors for recommending marijuana to their sick patients. This order let stand a Court of Appeals ruling that doctors have a First Amendment right to discuss the possible benefits of marijuana for relief of pain, nausea and other symptoms.7 A well-crafted state medical marijuana law can protect both doctors and the vast majority of patients.
Eleven states have enacted effective medical marijuana laws.
Eleven very diverse states (AK, CA, CO, HI, ME, MT, NV, OR, RI, VT, WA) have now adopted medical marijuana statutes. In 2005, Rhode Island’s legislature overrode a veto to allow doctors and patients who possess state-issued identification cards to prescribe and use medicinal marijuana. Oregon also passed medical marijuana legislation in 2005. A Maryland law passed in 2003 allows patients arrested for marijuana possession to provide a “medical necessity” defense—and sets $100 as a maximum penalty.
The public overwhelmingly supports the legalization of medical marijuana.
A February 2006 poll of Illinois voters found that 62 percent support legislation that allows marijuana for the treatment of serious illnesses.8 A November 2002 CNN/Time poll found that 80 percent of Americans “think adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes it.” Only 17 percent believe “marijuana should remain illegal even for medical purposes.”
Medical marijuana laws do not increase use of the drug among youth.
Contrary to critics’ fears, the availability of medical marijuana has not increased use of the drug among young people. A 2005 study showed that since the passage of the first state medical marijuana law—California’s 1996 Proposition 215—all states with medical marijuana laws have seen a decrease in youth marijuana use.9 The report relied on publicly-available state surveys on adolescent marijuana use both before and after their laws were enacted.

This policy summary relies in large part on information from the Marijuana Policy Project.

Endnotes
  1. National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, “Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base,” 1999.
  2. Dr. Jeffrey Miron, “The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition,” Harvard University, June 2005.
  3. Campaign Against Government Waste, “Up in Smoke: ONDCP’s Wasted Efforts in the War on Drugs,” May 2005.
  4. American Enterprise Institute, “An Analytic Assessment of U.S. Drug Policy,” February 2005.
  5. Gonzalez v. Reich, 125 S. Ct. 2195 (2005).
  6. Marijuana Policy Project, Marijuana Policy Report, Vol. 7 Num. 3, Fall 2001, based on a comparison of Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States: 2000 Uniform Crime Reports,” 2001, and U.S. Department of Justice, “Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 1999,” April 2001.
  7. Walters v. Conant, 540 US 946 (2003).
  8. Anzalone-Liszt Research, Inc., February 2006 poll.
  9. Karen O’Keefe and Mitch Earleywine, “Marijuana Use by Young People: The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Laws,” Marijuana Policy Project, September 2005.
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