Legalization of Marijuana for Medicinal

¶ … legalization of marijuana for medicinal use is a controversial topic in American society. Several states have enacted laws allowing the sale and consumption of marijuana for medicinal purposes, but so far, only one state is actually considering allowing recreational marijuana consumption as well. One of the reasons that the medicinal use of marijuana is controversial is that the processes and regulations for qualifying as a medical user are state-controlled and subject to widespread abuse, such as where physicians routinely dispense prescriptions without rigorous limitation by medical criteria. As a result, the legal medicinal use of marijuana is contributing to the reduction of social constraints to recreational use. In some states, recreational users can obtain a valid license designating them patients with medicinal marijuana prescriptions. Meanwhile, there are patients who are legitimately entitled to medicinal marijuana who refrain from availing themselves of it, precisely because they know that marijuana is generally considered an illicit drug and they associate with a very negative social stigma. The other reason that the topic is controversial is that marijuana use is still illegal in every state under federal law, irrespective of state laws. However, the decision to prosecute or ignore violations of federal law has not been high priority and the cultivation and dispensation of medicinal marijuana is regulated and taxed by various state authorities all while being susceptible to immediate closure and prosecution under federal law simultaneously.

Literature Review and Hypothesis Review of Existing Literature

Page, Verhoef, Stebbins, Metz, and Levy (2003) conducted a qualitative study of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients in connection with the use of medicinal marijuana to mitigate their MS symptoms. The study consisted of a survey mailed to MS patients inquiring into their relative awareness of the potential benefits of medicinal marijuana for their condition, whether or not they had ever tried marijuana to alleviate their MS symptoms, why they chose not to do so, whether they supported the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and to measure their subjective beliefs about the degree to which the medicinal marijuana was helpful. The hypothesis was that prior experience with marijuana would correlate with greater perceived relief.

Because patients (and members of society more generally) exhibit such widely differing views about medicinal marijuana, Reinarman, Nunberg, Lanthier, and Heddleston (2011) conducted a qualitative study of patients seeking medicinal marijuana licenses at a network of distribution clinics. Their hypothesis was that certain demographic and other similarities (such as prior recreational drug use) would be more common than could be expected by chance among those individuals who chose to pursue the route to obtaining a license for medicinal marijuana. That hypothesis was confirmed.

Because of the degree to which legalization of medicinal marijuana has been linked to recreational use, Khatapoush and Hallfors (2004) hypothesized that public attitudes about marijuana use and actual marijuana use patterns have changed in the 8 years since the legalization of medicinal marijuana in California in 1996 that has permitted medicinal marijuana use ever since. That hypothesis was not confirmed because the data indicated that attitudes and patterns of recreational marijuana use had not increased during that time, but had remained constant.

In 2002, Trevino and Richard conducted a study to determine whether or not previous experience with and history of recreational drug use affected attitudes and beliefs about the legalization of drugs in American society. They hypothesized that higher rates of previous exposure to recreational drug use would correspond to more liberal attitudes that supported the legalization of drug use in society. The hypothesis was confirmed and the study determined that subjects also differed in their interpretation of underlying concepts and distinctions such as in connection with what substances are properly regarded as drugs and what types of behavior rightfully constitute drug use.

Methodology

The Khatapoush and Hallfors study (2004) utilized a series of telephone surveys conducted in 11 states during 1995, 1997, and 1999. The design of the study was to compare the patterns and frequency of recreational drug use of various types, and of the attitudes expressed by residents of California to the behavior and attitudes on the same issues in the 10 other states after California legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 1996. The number of respondents in California was 2,651 and a total of 12, 916 in the other 10 states. The Trevino and Richard study (2002) involved a sample of 188 drug users and non-drug users surveyed for their responses to questions about their opinions about the legalization of marijuana, and also of other illicit recreational drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines.

The Page, Verhoef, Stebbins, Metz, and Levy study (2003) utilized a self-reported questionnaire developed specifically as a tool for this study designed to identify differences in the choices made by patients with MS to use marijuana as a means of mitigating the severity of their MS symptoms. It collected demographic data, information about severity of disease symptoms, diagnoses, previous types of experiences with marijuana, beliefs about drug use, knowledge of the reported value of marijuana for medicinal purposes for the treatment of specific MS symptoms of and patterns of use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. It also inquired into the subjective beliefs of the patients about the degree to which medicinal marijuana had been helpful in alleviating their MS symptoms.

The 2011 Reinarman, Nunberg, Lanthier, and Heddleston study utilized information collected from 1,746 admissions to 9 medicinal marijuana clinics in California during the process of their intake into the facility after their initial application. It focused on the attitudes and previous experiences of the applicants in relation to marijuana for both recreational use and medicinal use prior to their participation in a legally recognized dispensation facility. The data included medical histories and the nature of the symptoms for which the patients had previously sought relief through medicinal marijuana and those for which the patients were currently seeking relief.