Legalization Of Marijuana

There are 3 general policy perspectives concerning the status of marijuana in the United States: prohibition, decriminalization, and legalization. Prohibition describes current federal policy toward marijuana use, which seeks to minimize or prevent use of marijuana with strong legal sanctions and aggressive interdiction of supply routes. Decriminalization and depenalization (used interchangeably in this report) refer to the elimination, reduction, and/or nonenforcement of penalties for the sale, purchase, or possession of marijuana although such activities remain illegal.

Under decriminalization, penalties for use or distribution are at least possible theoretically, and advertising would be banned. Legalization, one step beyond decriminalization, would fundamentally change the status of marijuana in society. It is an acknowledgment that the government has no fundamental interest in an individual's use of a drug, although it may still seek to regulate its sale, distribution, use, and advertisement to safeguard the public's health. Such is the case with alcohol and tobacco. Of the 3 approaches, only the prohibitionist approach has reducing or limiting drug use as its explicit goal.

Medical Marijuana

Considerable anecdotal evidence suggests that marijuana may be effective in treating a number of medical conditions.

This perspective has been an important force behind efforts to change the legal status of marijuana. Marijuana has been touted as ameliorating chemotherapy-induced nausea, wasting and anorexia associated with AIDS, intraocular pressure in glaucoma, and muscle spasticity arising from such conditions as multiple sclerosis. Two comprehensive reviews evaluating the scientific basis for these claims, one conducted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the other by the American Medical Association, have been published recently. Both reports acknowledge the lack of rigorous data to support the use of smoked marijuana as medicine while calling for additional research into the medical use of cannabinoids, especially those that could be delivered rapidly in a smoke-free ...