Does Medical Marijuana Laws Increase Marijuana Use?

[MrTShirt]

The long answer:  JAMA Psychiatry 2017 Apr 26.  Second Opinion, XXVII, No. 8, page 3

The short answer is:
- States with MJ laws vs. states without MJ laws increased 1.5%
- Cannabis use disorders increased 0.7%

Compare that to the medical benefit of medical marijuana.

[Mikey]

Well I can't speak to medicinal use, but legalizing recreational use will save a fortune in arrests and prosecutions. Conversely it could raise a billion dollars a year going to the state in taxes, the rate is 25%. The pot shop I go to even has a senior discount and a 2% payback in points you can use on your future purchases.  8)

[georoc01]

As far as medical goes, the problem is that at least in Colorado over 90% of the patients are under age 25 with lower back pain.


If its truly medicinal, it needs to go through the same process that other drugs do, rather than having a small handful of doctors handing out medical licenses for $100 a pop which then allows purchase through a dispensary.


Or go the route Mikey proposed of true recreational with taxes collected. Or course, the taxes have to be such to not push most customers back into the illegal route.

[Zylar]

People are going to do it, better to bring it out of the shadows, get tax revenue and make it safe/regulated.  It's far less dangerous than other legal substances and we waste a ton of money/time prosecuting it and criminalizing entire massive groups of people over something that is largely harmless.

[Dr. Who]

Lawmakers are a bunch of hypocrites in my book.  They're willing to legalized a recreational drug like marijuana, but are unwilling to decriminalize prostitution which is also harmless amongst consenting adults.

Legalizing recreational marijuana was also on our Illinois primary ballot this year and it received an overwhelming "yes" vote.  Medical weed is already legal here, but I won't be surprised if the state of Illinois legalizes recreational weed in the near future.

[Zylar]

Yea, tons of parallels with legalizing marijuana and sex work, all for both because the benefits far outweigh concerns in my book

[raving loon]

Hey Doc, I've said this before to other people, but I'll say it again: You'll see Cocaine and Heroin legalized before you ever see prostitution legalized > . For some reason the powers that be would rather see everyone hooked on drugs and thereby making it easier to manipulate other whereas prostitution doesn't have that same kind of effect on people. To me that's the only thing that makes sense as to why these hypocrites have no problems with drugs yet have a major stick up their asses about prostitution. Don't get me wrong Doc I am for legalizing it, but like you I share your amazement on the positions of our elected officials.

While I'm for legalizing drugs, I'm also not under any kind of grand delusions that it's going to solve budget problems or end crime like some of these other proponents of legalization make it out to be. If your state is near bankruptcy now, it will probably continue to be that way even after they start collecting tax revenue. There will probably be less crime on the lower end of the food chain (street crimes), but those big Narco organizations will still be there because like the Mafia after prohibition, they'll just find something else to branch of into.

That all said, I say legalize all of the fun vices because quite frankly if we're supposed to be a society that values personal freedom, then you should be able to do what you want that causes no harm to others.

[rachelvarga]

Legalization of marijuana and prostitution are different. Marijuana is highly regulated and not a human being. I am 100% for legalization of marijuana even those I don't use. There are benefits and frankly it's no one's business. I have never heard of anyone overdosing (I couldn't find a single case where it was directly caused by marijuana). People don't smoke marijuana and beat their wives and kids. Alcohol does that. Alcohol is the most abused drug in the United States. Probably the world.


Legalization of prostitution is really tricky. Do we make it to where it is totally open and anyone can do it anytime they please? If so then trafficking will explode. So do we regulate it and say it is only in a brothel? That's not fair because the entry to ownership of a brothel is very expensive. I'm not sure how it would be done. There are many options.

[Zylar]

I totally agree with you that prostitution is more complicated and would require more regulation to ensure safety.  The best people to help direct that course as subject matter experts would be women such as yourself who are currently employed in a legally existing framework (LPIN) to help shape how it could be expanded and improved upon. 


Also as a funny aside to the overdose comment, I would love to attempt to overdose on courtesans  ;D 

... I have never heard of anyone overdosing (I couldn't find a single case where it was directly caused by marijuana) ...

[MrTShirt]

I see folks have missed the original point, but still interesting unrelated discussion.