Quit Taking People To Jail For Weed: May 2012

Great compilation of information on why we must quit taking people to jail for weed.

Marijuana Facts from Drug War Facts
http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/files/Marijuana-Facts-from-Drug-War-Facts.pd...
__________________________________________________________

(marijuana - gateway to other drugs) "Analysis of the demographic and social characteristics of a large sample of applicants seeking approval to use marijuana medically in California supports an interpretation of long term non problematic use by many who had first tried it as adolescents, and then either continued to use it or later resumed its use as adults. In general, they have used it at modest levels and in consistent patterns which anecdotally-often assisted their educational achievement, employment performance, and establishment of a more stable life-style. These data suggest that rather than acting as a gateway to other drugs, (which many had also tried), cannabis has been exerting a beneficial influence on most."

Source:
Thomas J O'Connell and Ché B Bou-Matar, "Long term marijuana users seeking medical cannabis in California (2001–2007): demographics, social characteristics, patterns of cannabis and other drug use of 4117 applicants," Harm Reduction Journal, (November 2007).
http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/pdf/1477-7517-4-16.pdf

(marijuana - failure of cannabis prohibition) "Increased funding for cannabis prohibition has increased cannabis seizures and arrests, but the assumption that this reduces cannabis potency, increases price or meaningfully reduces availability or use is inconsistent with surveillance data the US federal government has itself collected."

Source:
International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, "Tools for Debate: US Federal Government Data on Cannabis Prohibition" (Vancouver, British Columbia: 2010), p. 21
http://www.icsdp.org/docs/ICSDP-2.pdf

(economics - effects of marijuana prohibition) "Prohibition has two effects: on one hand it raises supplier costs, disrupts market functioning and prevents open promotion of the product; on the other, it sacrifices the authorities’ ability to tax transactions and regulate operation of the market, product characteristics and promotional activity of suppliers. The cannabis prevalence rates presented in Figure 1 show clearly that prohibition has failed to prevent widespread use of the drug and leaves open the possibility that it might be easier to control the harmful use of cannabis by regulation of a legal market than to control illicit consumption under prohibition. The contrast between the general welcome for tobacco regulation (including bans on smoking in public places) and the deep suspicion of prohibition policy on cannabis is striking and suggests that a middle course of legalised but limited consumption may find a public consensus."

Source:
"Pudney, Stephen, "Drugs Policy – What Should We Do About Cannabis?" Centre for Economic Policy Research (London, United Kingdom: April 2009), p. 23.
http://www.cepr.org/meets/wkcn/9/976/papers/pudney.pdf

(marijuana - official plant definitions) According to a form used to submit cannabis samples to the University of Mississippi for potency analysis "in accordance with the terms of the Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program grant agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration," cannabis plants are defined as:

"Cultivated Sinsemilla: Female cannabis plant which has not been pollinated. May grow from cutting or from seed. May contain some seed (if un-pollinated the seed will be sterile). Common illicit indoor grow technique.

"Cultivated Non Sinsemilla: Male or Female cannabis plant commonly grown for illicit drug use.

"Cultivated Ditchweed: Male or Female cannabis plant which grows wild in many states that has in some way been tended by man. Examples of tending are: weeding, watering, topping, fertilizing, harvesting.

"Ditchweed: Unattended, wild male or female cannabis that is native to many states.

"Cannabis Bud: Flowering top of a female cannabis plant. The Bud may contain seed. Most valuable portion of a cannabis plant to the illicit grower. Bud formation occurs late in plant development.

"Leaf: Cannabis leaf potency tends to correlate to position on the plant. The most potent part of the plant is the new leaves at the top of the plant. As you move downward on the plant potency decreases. The least potent leaves on the plant are the large leaves at the bottom of the plant.

"Mature Cannabis: Mature cannabis plants have a higher potency than immature plants. Determination of plant maturity should be made using all available contextual factors. For example, is the plant outdoors and it only June or July, if so, then the plant is likely immature. However, if the growing season is near an end, such as September or October, then the plant is probably mature. Note male cannabis plants are mature as early as August when grown outdoors. It is more difficult to generalize regarding maturity of indoor grows. “Spike” cannabis plants can mature in as little as 6-8 weeks whereas an indoor grow with plants 3-4 feet in height may take 60-120 days to mature.

"Already Harvested: Cannabis plant material recently dried or packaged. May be either bud or leaf.

"Average Plant Canopy Diameter: Record the diameter of a typical mature cannabis plant at its broadest point through the center. Diameter data can be used to predict usable yield with good accuracy."

Source:
"Cannabis Potency Monitoring Form," Cannabis Potency Monitoring Project (University, MS: Univesity of Mississippi)
http://www.fl-aglaw.com/pdf/DME_Cannabis_Potency_Monitoring_Project_Form...

(marijuana - THC content by plant part) "The secretion of THC is most abundant in the flowering heads and surrounding leaves. The amount of resin secreted is influenced by environmental conditions during growth (light, temperature and humidity), sex of the plant, and time of harvest. The THC content varies between parts of the plant: from 10-12 % in flowers, 1-2 % in leaves, 0.1-0.3 % in stalks, to less than 0.03 % in the roots."

Source:
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2009" (Vienna, Austria: United Nations, 2009), p. 97.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2009/WDR2009_eng_web.pdf

(cannabis - historic research) "The identification of cannabis as a potentially dangerous psychoactive substance did not, however, prevent a substantial number of these enquiries to explore the issue of whether current legislation reflected the real dangers posed by cannabis. Already in 1944, the La Guardia Committee Report on Marihuana concluded that ‘the practice of smoking marihuana does not lead to addiction in the medical sense of the word’ and that ‘the use of marihuana does not lead to morphine or heroin or cocaine addiction’ (Zimmer and Morgan, 1997). In 1968 the Wootton Report stated that ‘the dangers of cannabis use as commonly accepted in the past and the risk of progression to opiates have been overstated’ and ‘cannabis is less harmful than other substances (amphetamines, barbiturates, codeine-like compounds)’. A similar conclusion was arrived at 34 years later in 2002 when the Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence proposed the reclassification of cannabis from Class B to Class C (enforced by law in 2004 and confirmed in 2005). These views were reiterated by other enquiries, such as the Baan Committee in the Netherlands, which affirmed in 1971 that ‘cannabis use does not lead directly to other drug use’ (¹⁶) or by the US National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, which in 1973 stated that ‘the existing social and legal policy is out of proportion to the individual and social harm engendered by the use of the drug [cannabis]’ (¹⁷). The Canadian Le Dain Commission saw ‘the UN Single Convention of 1961 as responsible’ for such a situation which ‘might have reinforced the erroneous impression that cannabis is to be assimilated to the opiate narcotics’. The same commission, however, suggested that the UN Convention did ‘not prevent domestic legislation from correcting this impression’ (¹⁸)."

Source:
EMCDDA (2008), "A cannabis reader: global issues and local experiences," Monograph series 8, Volume 1, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, p. 108.
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_53355_EN_emcdda-cannabi...

Marijuana - Data

(2010 - number of parents and children who use marijuana) A projection of the number of parents who use cannabis can be computed by comparing U.S. Census estimates with data from the Monitoring the Future study.

The U.S. Census estimates that families in households with minor children - married and single parent male or female - comprised roughly 62 million persons in 2010. An average of the percentage use figures in the 2010 Monitoring the Future study indicate that around 15% of those within the childbearing years of age 20-35 consume cannabis monthly, with about 5% being daily users. Daily use likely equates to medical use. Simple multiplication of these two percentages times the estimated 62 million persons heading family households places the number of marijuana using parents in the United States as high as 9.5 million and patient parents near 3 million.

The U.S. Census also estimates the number of children ages 12-17 at 24.8 million. Monitoring the Future projects the percentage of adolescents who currently use cannabis at 13.8%. The result of multiplying the two figures is roughly 3.4 million young people who use cannabis at least monthly.

Source:
"Working Parents," Catalyst (New York, NY: February 17, 2011), p. 1.
http://www.catalyst.org/file/431/qt_working_parents.pdf
===
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2010). "Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2009: Volume II, College students and adults ages 19–50" (NIH Publication No. 10-7585). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse. p. 161.
http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol2_2009.pdf
===
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, "America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being," (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2011), p. 93.
http://www.childstats.gov/pdf/ac2011/ac_11.pdf

(2010 - marijuana - use prevalence) "In 2010, marijuana was the most commonly used illicit drug, with 17.4 million current users. It was used by 76.8 percent of current illicit drug users and was the only drug used by 60.1 percent of them."

Source:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, "Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings," NSDUH Series H-41, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 11-4658. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2011. p. 11.
http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k10NSDUH/2k10Results.pdf

(2010 - marijuana - California arrestees) "In 1990, half of California’s marijuana possession arrestees were African-American, Latino, Asian, or other nonwhite and 35% were under age 20. In 2010, 64% were nonwhite and 52% were under age 20. Marijuana possession arrests of teenagers of color rose from 3,100 in 1990 to 16,400 in 2010 – an arrest surge 300% greater than population growth in that group."

Source:
Males, Mike, "Misdemeanor marijuana arrests are skyrocketing and other California marijuana enforcement disparities," Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (San Francisco, CA: November 2011), p. 2.
http://cjcj.org/files/Misdemeanor_marijuana_arrests.pdf

(2010 - marijuana - disapproval) "Personal disapproval of marijuana use fell considerably among 8th graders between 1991 and 1996 and among 10th and 12th graders between 1992 and 1997—by 17, 21, and 19 percentage points, respectively, over those intervals of increasing use. After that there was some modest increase in disapproval among 8th graders, but not much among 10th and 12th graders until 2004, when all grades showed increases. From 2003 to 2007 disapproval increased in all three grades, but has been in decline since then as use rose."

Source:
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2011). "Monitoring the Future national results on adolescent drug use: Overview of key findings, 2010." (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan), p. 12.
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2010.pdf

(2010 - marijuana - daily users) "In 2010, an estimated 15.7 percent of past year marijuana users aged 12 or older used marijuana on 300 or more days within the past 12 months. This translates into 4.6 million persons using marijuana on a daily or almost daily basis over a 12-month period."

Source:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2011). "Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Volume I. Summary of National Findings" (Office of Applied Studies, NSDUH Series H-38A, HHS Publication No. SMA 10-4586 Findings). Rockville, MD., p. 24.
Report: http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k10NSDUH/2k10Results.pdf

(2009 - cannabis - health care cost) "The public health burden of cannabis use is probably modest compared with that of alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drugs. A recent Australian study⁹⁶ estimated that cannabis use caused 0·2% of total disease burden in Australia—a country with one of the highest reported rates of cannabis use. Cannabis accounted for 10% of the burden attributable to all illicit drugs (including heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines). It also accounted for around 10% of the proportion of disease burden attributed to alcohol (2·3%), but only 2·5% of that attributable to tobacco (7·8%)."

Source:
Hall, Wayne and Degenhardt, Louise, "Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use," The Lancet (London, United Kingdom: October 17, 2009) Vol. 374, p. 1389.
http://science.iowamedicalmarijuana.org/pdfs/misc/cannabis.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19837255

(marijuana - global prevalence)
(2008) "Globally, the number of people who had used cannabis at least once in 2008 is estimated between 129 and 191 million, or 2.9% to 4.3% of the world population aged 15 to 64. ... National experts in many parts of the world perceive cannabis use to be either stabilizing or increasing, although about 15 countries reported a decrease in 2007 and 2008."

(2007) "The global number of people who used cannabis at least once in 2007 is estimated to be between 143 and 190 million persons. The highest levels of use remain in the established markets of North America and Western Europe, although there are signs from recent studies that the levels of use are declining in developed countries, particularly among young people."

(2004) "Cannabis remains by far the most commonly used drug in the world. An estimated 162 million people used cannabis in 2004, equivalent to some 4 per cent of the global population age 15-64. In relative terms, cannabis use is most prevalent in Oceania, followed by North America and Africa. While Asia has the lowest prevalence expressed as part of the population, in absolute terms it is the region that is home to some 52 million cannabis users, more than a third of the estimated total. The next largest markets, in absolute terms, are Africa and North America."

Source:
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2010" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2010), p. 194.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-re...
===
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2009" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2009), p. 89.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2009/WDR2009_eng_web.pdf
===
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 23.
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2006/wdr2006_volume1.pdf

(2009 - marijuana - treatment admissions by the criminal justice system) "Primary marijuana admissions were less likely than all admissions combined to be self- or individually referred to treatment (15 percent vs. 33 percent)"

Editor's Note: Criminal justice treatment admissions for 2009 equaled 56.2% of all treatment admissions for which marijuana was the primary substance of abuse. Of these marijuana treatment admissions by the criminal justice system, 47.5% came from probation/parole.

(2006 - marijuana - treatment admissions by the criminal justice system) "More than half (58 percent) of primary marijuana admissions were referred to treatment through the criminal justice system."

Source:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS). 1999 - 2009. National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services, DASIS Series: S-56, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 11-4646, Rockville, MD; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2011.
http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/teds09/teds2k9nweb.pdf
===
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies. Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS): 1996-2006. National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services, DASIS Series: S-43, DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 08-4347, Rockville, MD, 2008, p. 41.
http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/teds06/teds2k6aweb508.pdf

(2008 - marijuana - primary cultivation states) "California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia are the primary marijuana cultivation states (M7 states). Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP) data show that more than 8 million plants were eradicated in 2008, 89 percent (7,136,133 plants of 8,013,308 plants) of which were eradicated in the M7 States."

Source:
National Drug Intelligence Center, "Domestic Cannabis Cultivation Assessment 2009," (Johnstown, PA: July, 2009), p. 1.
http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs37/37035/37035p.pdf

(2008 - marijuana - potency) "Twenty-three Police Forces in England and Wales participated in the study [of cannabis potency]. In early 2008, they submitted 2,921 samples for analysis..." These are the conclusions:

"• The mean THC concentration (potency) of the sinsemilla samples was 16.2% (range = 4.1 to 46%). The median potency was 15.0%, close to values reported by others in the past few years.

"• The mean THC concentration (potency) of the traditional imported herbal cannabis samples was 8.4% (range = 0.3 to 22%); median = 9.0%. Only a very small number of samples were received and analysed.

"• The mean potency of cannabis resin was 5.9% (range = 1.3 to 27.8%). The median = 5.0% was typical of values reported by others over many years.

"• Cannabis resin had a mean CBD content of 3.5% (range = 0.1 to 7.3%), but the CBD content of herbal cannabis was less than 0.1% in nearly all cases."

Source:
Hardwick, Sheila; King, Leslie, "Home Office Cannabis Potency Study 2008," Home Office Scientific Development Branch (Sandridge, St Albans, UK: May 2008), p. 1.
http://www.drugslibrary.stir.ac.uk/documents/potency.pdf

(2007 - marijuana - risk of arrest) "To provide a sense of the intensity of enforcement, we calculated the risk a marijuana user faces of being arrested for possession. If calculated per joint consumed, the figure nationally is trivial—perhaps one arrest for every 11,000–12,000 joints.⁴ However, the relevant risk may be the probability of being arrested during a year of normal consumption. Since marijuana is mostly consumed by individuals who use it at least once a month,⁵ we estimated the risk that such individuals face. We know from prior studies (e.g., Reuter, Hirschfield, and Davies, 2001) that these risks are higher for youth. Table 2.2 presents separate estimates for those aged 12–17 and for the entire population 12 and over. We observe that the annual risk of misdemeanor arrest for those 12–17 (6.6 percent) is more than twice the rate for the full population (3.0 percent)."

Source:
Kilmer, Beau; Caulkins, Jonathan P.; Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo; MacCoun, Robert J.; Reuter, Peter H., "Altered State? Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets" Drug Policy Research Center (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2010), p. 8.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP315.pdf

(2004 - prisons & drug offenders - state and federal marijuana prisoners) The number of people serving time in federal and state prisons for marijuana offenses must be computed:

Total Federal Prisoners 2004 = 170,535
Total State Prisoners 2004 = 1,244,311

Percent of federal prisoners held for drug law violations = 55%
Percent of state prisoners held for drug law violations = 21%

Marijuana/hashish, Percent of federal drug offenders, 2004 = 12.4%
Marijuana/hashish, Percent of state drug offenders, 2004 = 12.7%

Do the math: (Total prisoners x percent drug law) x percent marijuana = "marijuana prisoners"

The Results:

Federal marijuana prisoners, 2004 = 11,630
State marijuana prisoners, 2004 = 33,186
Total federal and state marijuana prisoners in 2004 = 44,816

In 2004, "Marijuana prisoners" equaled about 12.6% of those incarcerated for drug law violations and about 3.2% of total state and federal prisoners. Compared to 1997, the number of "marijuana prisoners" in 2004 had increased by about +15%.

These numbers exclude those among the 700,000+ inmates who may be in local jail because of a marijuana conviction.

Source:
Mumola , Christopher J. and Karberg, Jennifer C., "Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004," Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, January 2007) NCJ 213530, p. 4.
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/dudsfp04.pdf
==
Harrison, Paige M. and Beck, Allan J., "Prisoners in 2004," Bureau of Justice Statistics, (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, October 2005), NCJ 210677, Table 1, page 2.
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p04.pdf

(1992-2002 - marijuana - treatment admissions) "... between these years [1992 and 2002] the rate of substance abuse treatment admissions reporting marijuana as their primary substance of abuse³ per 100,000 population increased 162 percent. Similarly, the proportion of marijuana admissions increased from 6 percent of all admissions in 1992 to 15 percent of all admissions reported to the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) in 2002.

"During this time period, the percentage of marijuana treatment admissions that were referred from the criminal justice system increased from 48 percent of all marijuana admissions in 1992 to 58 percent of all marijuana admissions in 2002."

Source:
"Differences in Marijuana Admissions Based on Source of Referral: 2002," The DASIS Report (Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies, June 5, 2005), pp. 1-2.
http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k5/MJreferrals/MJreferrals.pdf

(2002 - marijuana - potency) "Although marijuana grown in the United States was once considered inferior because of a low concentration of THC, advancements in plant selection and cultivation have resulted in higher THC-containing domestic marijuana. In 1974, the average THC content of illicit marijuana was less than one percent. Today most commercial grade marijuana from Mexico/Columbia and domestic outdoor cultivated marijuana has an average THC content of about 4 to 6 percent. Between 1998 and 2002, NIDA-sponsored Marijuana Potency Monitoring System (MPMP) analyzed 4,603 domestic samples. Of those samples, 379 tested over 15 percent THC, 69 samples tested between 20 and 25 percent THC and four samples tested over 25 percent THC."

Source:
Lyman, Michael "Practical Drug Enforcement, Third Edition" CRC Press (Boca Raton, FL: 2007), p. 74.
http://mapinc.org/url/FTKXD890

(1998 - marijuana - NIDA cannabis cigarettes per acre and by strength) "Under the current contract with the University of Mississippi for any given year NIDA [National Institute on Drug Abuse] has the option to grow either 1.5 or 6.5 acres of cannabis, or to not grow any at all, depending on research demand. Generally, 1.5 acres are grown in alternate years. The number of cannabis cigarettes produced from 1.5 acres is about 50,000-60,000, although it can be higher. Cigarettes are produced in three potencies: strength 1 - 3-4 %; strength 2 - 1.8-2.2 %; and strength 3 - placebo, as close to 0% as possible. During the past three years, the following quantities have been shipped: 1994 - 24,000 cigarettes; 1995 - 23, 100 - cigarettes; and 1996 17,700 cigarettes. Virtually all of the cigarettes shipped in the last three years have been for single patient INDs. As of March 1997 there were 278, 100 cigarettes in stock. The cigarettes are maintained in frozen storage and have a useful life of approximately five years."

Source:
"Provision of Marijuana and Other Compounds For Scientific Research - Recommendations of The National Institute on Drug Abuse National Advisory Council," National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, January 1998)
http://archives.drugabuse.gov/about/organization/nacda/MarijuanaStatemen...

(1997 - prisons & drugs - federal & state marijuana prisoners) he number of people serving time in federal and state prisons for marijuana offenses must be computed:

Total Federal Prisoners 1997 = 89,072
Total State Prisoners 1997 = 1,059,607

Percent of federal prisoners held for drug law violations, 1997 = 60%
Percent of state prisoners held for drug law violations, 1997 = 21%

Marijuana/hashish, Percent of federal drug offenders, 1997 = 18.9%
Marijuana/hashish, Percent of state drug offenders, 1997 = 12.9%

Do the math: (Total prisoners x percent drug law) x percent marijuana = "marijuana prisoners"

The Results:

Federal marijuana prisoners, 1997 = 10,101
State marijuana prisoners, 1997 = 28,705
Total federal and state marijuana prisoners in 1997 = 38,806

In 1997, "Marijuana prisoners" equaled about 14% of those incarcerated for drug law violations and about 3.4% of total state and federal prisoners. These numbers exclude those among the 700,000+ inmates who may be in local jail because of a marijuana conviction.

Source:
Mumola, Christopher J., "Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, 1997," Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, October 2005) NCJ 172871, p. 2.
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/satsfp97.pdf

Marijuana - Effects

(marijuana - cognition) "In conclusion, our meta-analysis of studies that have attempted to address the question of longer term neurocognitive disturbance in moderate and heavy cannabis users has failed to demonstrate a substantial, systematic, and detrimental effect of cannabis use on neuropsychological performance. It was surprising to find such few and small effects given that most of the potential biases inherent in our analyses actually increased the likelihood of finding a cannabis effect."

Source:
Grant, Igor, et al., "Non-Acute (Residual) Neurocognitive Effects Of Cannabis Use: A Meta-Analytic Study," Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (Cambridge University Press: July 2003), 9, p. 687.
http://www.csdp.org/research/348art2003.pdf

(marijuana - cognition) "The results of our meta-analytic study failed to reveal a substantial, systematic effect of long-term, regular cannabis consumption on the neurocognitive functioning of users who were not acutely intoxicated. For six of the eight neurocognitive ability areas that were surveyed. the confidence intervals for the average effect sizes across studies overlapped zero in each instance, indicating that the effect size could not be distinguished from zero. The two exceptions were in the domains of learning and forgetting."

Source:
Grant, Igor, et al., "Non-Acute (Residual) Neurocognitive Effects Of Cannabis Use: A Meta-Analytic Study," Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (Cambridge University Press: July 2003), 9, p. 685.
http://www.csdp.org/research/348art2003.pdf

(marijuana - cognition) "Current marijuana use had a negative effect on global IQ score only in subjects who smoked 5 or more joints per week. A negative effect was not observed among subjects who had previously been heavy users but were no longer using the substance. We conclude that marijuana does not have a long-term negative impact on global intelligence. Whether the absence of a residual marijuana effect would also be evident in more specific cognitive domains such as memory and attention remains to be ascertained."

Source:
Fried, Peter, Barbara Watkinson, Deborah James, and Robert Gray, "Current and former marijuana use: preliminary findings of a longitudinal study of effects on IQ in young adults," Canadian Medical Association Journal, April 2, 2002, 166(7), p. 887.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC100921/pdf/20020402s00015p88...

(marijuana - cognition) "Although the heavy current users experienced a decrease in IQ score, their scores were still above average at the young adult assessment (mean 105.1). If we had not assessed preteen IQ, these subjects would have appeared to be functioning normally. Only with knowledge of the change in IQ score does the negative impact of current heavy use become apparent."

Source:
Fried, Peter, Barbara Watkinson, Deborah James, and Robert Gray, "Current and former marijuana use: preliminary findings of a longitudinal study of effects on IQ in young adults," Canadian Medical Association Journal, April 2, 2002, 166(7), p. 890.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC100921/pdf/20020402s00015p88...

(marijuana - cognition) "...our data suggest that over the long term cannabis use is not associated with greater declines in cognition among men, women, or heavy users ... these results would seem to provide strong evidence of the absence of a long term residual effect of cannabis use on cognition."

"We conclude that cognitive decline occurs across all age groups, with a significant proportion of persons of all ages showing declines near clinically significant levels after 12 years. Such decline is not associated with cannabis use in either men or women."

Source:
Constantine G. Lyketsos, Elizabeth Garrett, Kung-Yee Liang, and James C. Anthony. (1999). "Cannabis Use and Cognitive Decline in Persons under 65 Years of Age," American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 149, No. 9
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/149/9/794.full.pdf

(marijuana - memory) "These results can be interpreted in several ways. A statistically reliable negative effect was observed in the domain of learning and forgetting, suggesting that chronic long-term cannabis use results in a selective memory defect. While the results are compatible with this conclusion, the effect size for both domains was of a very small magnitude. The "real life" impact of such a small and selective effect is questionable. In addition, it is important to note that most users across studies had histories of heavy longterm cannabis consumption. Therefore, these findings are not likely to generalize to more limited administration of cannabis compounds, as would be seen in a medical setting."

Source:
Grant, Igor, et al., "Non-Acute (Residual) Neurocognitive Effects Of Cannabis Use: A Meta-Analytic Study," Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (Cambridge University Press: July 2003), 9, p. 686.
http://www.csdp.org/research/348art2003.pdf

(marijuana - motivation) "The evidence for an "amotivational syndrome" among adults consists largely of case histories and observational reports (e.g. Kolansky and Moore, 1971; Millman and Sbriglio, 1986). The small number of controlled field and laboratory studies have not found compelling evidence for such a syndrome (Dornbush, 1974; Negrete, 1983; Hollister, 1986). ...it is doubtful that cannabis use produces a well defined amotivational syndrome."

Source:
Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use, August 28, 1995 (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, March 1998).
http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/hemp/general/who-probable.htm

(marijuana - potency) "Statements in the popular media that the potency of cannabis has increased by ten times or more in recent decades are not support by the data from either the USA or Europe. As discussed in the body of this report, systematic data are not available in Europe on long-term trends and analytical and methodological issues complicate the interpretation of the information that is available. Data are stronger for medium and short-term trends where no major differences are apparent in Europe, although some modest increases are found in some countries. The greatest long-term changes in potency appear to have occurred in the USA. It should be noted here that before 1980 herbal cannabis potency in the USA was, according to the available data, very low by European standards."

Source:
King, Leslie A., European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, "EMCDDA Insights - An Overview of Cannabis Potency in Europe" (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004), p. 14.
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_33985_EN_Insight6.pdf

(marijuana - potency) "There is growing evidence from this JRF [Joseph Rowntree Foundation] research and police seizure data that skunk, and home-grown herbal cannabis more generally, has become the most commonly used form of the drug among young people. This trend has been widely recognised by people in the drug field – and probably even better recognised by young people using cannabis. However, we have had no really reliable trend data with which to demonstrate this fundamental change in use. The growing fears over the past five years concerning the ‘new potency’ of cannabis have therefore been based largely on anecdote and conjecture."

Source:
Lloyd, Charlie and McKeganey, Neil, "Drugs Research: An overview of evidence and questions for policy," Joseph Rowntree Foundation (London, United Kingdom: June 2010), p. 20.
http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/drugs-research-overview-full.pdf

(marijuana - potency) "Data on the THC content of cannabis products in the USA have been collected by ElSohly et al. (1984, 2000) for many years as part of the University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project. Samples were submitted by law enforcement agencies and it is assumed that they are representative of the market ... Although there has been an increase in potency of herbal cannabis over the twenty-five-year period, cannabis resin (and hash oil) showed no long term trends since 1980 when data were first collected. Although potency of sinsemilla showed clear upward trend in the final three years of the study, no such trend was obvious when the longer period of 1980-1995 is examined, particularly in view of the wide variations in potency that occurred from year to year (ElSohly et al., 2000). The THC content of herbal cannabis increased from around 1% before 1980 to around 4% in 1997. This increase, when seen in the European context, is deceptive. Before 1980, all herbal cannabis THC levels in the ElSohly study were less than 2.4%. By contrast, ... comparable levels at the time in the United Kingdom were twice as great. In other words, it must be assumed that the quality of herbal cannabis consumed in the USA more than twenty years ago was unusually poor, but that in recent years it has risen to levels typical of Europe. So even the modest increase found by ElSohly et al. (2000) may be less significant than it seems."

Source:
King, Leslie A., "EMCDDA Insights - An Overview of Cannabis Potency in Europe," European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004), p. 52.
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_33985_EN_Insight6.pdf

(marijuana - psychosis) "... the expected rise in diagnoses of schizophrenia and psychoses did not occur over a 10 year period. This study does not therefore support the specific causal link between cannabis use and the incidence of psychotic disorders based on the 3 assumptions described in the Introduction. This concurs with other reports indicating that increases in population cannabis use have not been followed by increases in psychotic incidence (Macleod et al., 2006; Arsenault et al., 2004; Rey and Tennant, 2002)."

Source:
Frisher, Martin; Crome, Ilana; Orsolina, Martino; and Croft, Peter, "Assessing the impact of cannabis use on trends in diagnosed schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005," Schizophrenia Research (Nashville, Tennessee: Schizophrenia International Research Society, September 2009) Vol. 113, Issue 2, p. 126.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/keele_study/Assessing-the-impact-of-cannab...

(marijuana - psychosis) "Although individual lifetime risk of chronic psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, even in people who use cannabis regularly, is likely to be low (less than 3%), cannabis use can be expected to have a substantial effect on psychotic disorders at a population level because exposure to this drug is so common."

Source:
Moore, Theresa H M; Zammit, Stanley; Lingford-Hughes, Anne; Barnes, Thomas R E; Jones, Peter B; Burke, Margaret; Lewis, Glyn, "Cannabis use and risk of psychotic or aff ective mental health outcomes: a systematic review," The Lancet (London, United Kingdom: July 28, 2007) Vol 370, p. 327.
http://www.bris.ac.uk/psychiatry/staff/zammit/documents/paper.pdf

(marijuana - psychosis) "The lead researcher in the Christchurch study, Professor David Fergusson, said the role of cannabis in psychosis was not sufficient on its own to guide legislation. 'The result suggests heavy use can result in adverse side-effects,' he said. 'That can occur with ( heavy use of ) any substance. It can occur with milk.' Fergusson's research, released this month, concluded that heavy cannabis smokers were 1.5 times more likely to suffer symptoms of psychosis that non-users. The study was the latest in several reports based on a cohort of about 1000 people born in Christchurch over a four-month period in 1977. An effective way to deal with cannabis use would be to incrementally reduce penalties and carefully evaluate its impact, Fergusson said. 'Reduce the penalty, like a parking fine. You could then monitor ( the impact ) after five or six years. If it did not change, you might want to take another step.'

Source:
Bleakley, Louise, "NZ Study Used in UK Drug Review," The Press (Christchurch, New Zealand: March 22, 2005), from the web at http://www.mapinc.org/newscsdp/v05/n490/a08.html, last accessed October 3, 2011.

(marijuana - psychosis) "First, the use of cannabis and rates of psychotic symptoms were related to each other, independently of observed/non-observed fixed covariates and observed time dynamic factors (Table 2). Secondly, the results of structural equation modeling suggest that the direction of causation is that the use of cannabis leads to increases in levels of psychotic symptoms rather than psychotic symptoms increasing the use of cannabis. Indeed, there is a suggestion from the model results that increases in psychotic symptoms may inhibit the use of cannabis."

Source:
Fergusson, David M., John Horwood & Elizabeth M. Ridder, "Tests of Causal Linkages Between Cannabis Use and Psychotic Symptoms," Addiction, Vol. 100, No. 3, March 2005, p. 363.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15733249

(marijuana - the 'runners high' and cannabinoids) "The [endo] cannabinoids produce psychological states that closely parallel several experiences described as being related to the runner’s high. Compared with the opioid analgesics, the analgesia produced by the endocannabinoid system is more consistent with exercise induced analgesia. Activation of the endocannabinoid system also produces sedation, anxiolysis, a sense of wellbeing, reduced attentional capacity, impaired working memory ability, and difficulty in time estimation. This behavioural profile is similar to the psychological experiences reported by long distance runners."

Source:
Dietrich, A and McDaniel, W, "Endocannabinoids and exercise," British Journal of Sports Medicine (Middlesex, United Kingdom: British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine, October 2004), Volume 38, pp. 539-540.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1724924/pdf/v038p00536.pdf

(marijuana - safety) "There are health risks of cannabis use, most particularly when it is used daily over a period of years or decades. Considerable uncertainty remains about whether these effects are attributable to cannabis use alone, and about what the quantitative relationship is between frequency, quantity and duration of cannabis use and the risk of experiencing these effects.

"On existing patterns of use, cannabis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies."

Source:
Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., "WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use," (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, March 1998).
http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/hemp/general/who-conclusions.htm

(marijuana - safety) "Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug. Laboratory animals (rats, mice, dogs, monkeys) can tolerate doses of up to 1000 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram). This would be equivalent to a 70 kg person swallowing 70 grams of the drug —about 5,000 times more than is required to produce a high. Despite the widespread illicit use of cannabis there are very few if any instances of people dying from an overdose."

Source:
Iversen, Leslie L., "The Science of Marijuana" Oxford University Press (New York, NY: 2000), p. 178.
http://www.green215.com/sites/all/files/education_articles/Science%20Can...

(marijuana - safety) "A careful search of the literature and testimony of the nation's health officials has not revealed a single human fatality in the United States proven to have resulted solely from ingestion of marihuana. Experiments with the drug in monkeys demonstrated that the dose required for overdose death was enormous and for all practical purposes unachievable by humans smoking marihuana. This is in marked contrast to other substances in common use, most notably alcohol and barbiturate sleeping pills."

Editor's Note: The World Health Organization reached the same conclusion in 1995.

Source:
Shafer, Raymond P., et al, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, Ch. III, (Washington DC: National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, 1972).
http://druglibrary.net/schaffer/Library/studies/nc/ncc3.htm
===
Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use, August 28, 1995, (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, March 1998).
http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/hemp/general/who-index.htm

(marijuana - safety) The DEA's Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young concluded: "In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care."

Source:
US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition," [Docket #86-22], (September 6, 1988), p. 57.
http://www.iowamedicalmarijuana.org/pdfs/young.pdf

(marijuana - safety) "A review of the literature suggests that the majority of cannabis users, who use the drug occasionally rather than on a daily basis, will not suffer any lasting physical or mental harm. Conversely, as with other 'recreational' drugs, there will be some who suffer adverse consequences from their use of cannabis. Some individuals who have psychotic thought tendencies might risk precipitating psychotic illness. Those who consume large doses of the drug on a regular basis are likely to have lower educational achievement and lower income, and may suffer physical damage to the airways. They also run a significant risk of becoming dependent upon continuing use of the drug. There is little evidence, however, that these adverse effects persist after drug use stops or that any direct cause and effect relationships are involved."

Source:
Iversen, Leslie L., PhD, FRS, "Long-Term Effects of Exposure to Cannabis," Current Opinion in Pharmacology, Feb. 2005, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 71.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/long%20term%20cannabis%20effects....

(marijuana - smoking) Comparing marijuana, alcohol, nicotine and opiates, "The conclusion reached by the Institute of medicine in 1982 still stands: the smoking of marijuana 'causes changes to the heart and circulation that are characteristics of stress ...[but] there is no evidence ... that it exerts a permanently deleterious effect on the normal cardiovascular system ...'"

Source:
Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., "WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use," (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, March 1998).
http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/hemp/general/who-probable.htm

(marijuana - smoking) "For physiological and pharmacological reasons,⁶¹ smoking cannabinoid herbals does not seem to have a similar health hazard profile as tobacco smoking, aside from the potential for bronchial irritation and bronchitis. Smoking cannabis was not associated with an increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ..."

Source:
Aggarwal, Sunil K., "Cannabinergic Pain Medicine: A Concise Clinical Primer and Survey of Randomized-controlled Trial Results," Clinical Journal of Pain (Philadelphia, PA: February 23, 2012), p. 4.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22367503

(marijuana - violence) "Laboratory studies also find no link between THC intoxication and violence. Most people who ingest THC before performing a competitive task in the laboratory do not show more aggression than people who receive placebos; occasionally they show decreased hostility. Numerous scientific panels sponsored by various governments invariably report that marijuana does not lead to violence.(751)"

Source:
Carter, Gregory T.; Earleywine, Mitchell; McGill, Jason T., "Exhibit B: Statement of Grounds," Rulemaking petition to reclassify cannabis for medical use from a Schedule I controlled substance to a Schedule II (Office of Lincoln D. Chafee, Governor Rhode Island and Office of Christine O. Gregoire, Governor of Washington: Letter to Michelle Leonhard, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, November 30, 2011), p. 38.
http://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/healthcare/petition/combined_docum...

(marijuana - withdrawal) "An abstinence syndrome has been reported after the abrupt discontinuation of dronabinol [Marinol®] in volunteers receiving dosages of 210 mg/day for 12 to 16 consecutive days. Within 12 hours after discontinuation, these volunteers manifested symptoms such as irritability, insomnia, and restlessness. By approximately 24 hours post-dronabinol discontinuation, withdrawal symptoms intensified to include “hot flashes”, sweating, rhinorrhea, loose stools, hiccoughs and anorexia.

"These withdrawal symptoms gradually dissipated over the next 48 hours. Electroencephalographic changes consistent with the effects of drug withdrawal (hyperexcitation) were recorded in patients after abrupt dechallenge. Patients also complained of disturbed sleep for several weeks after discontinuing therapy with high dosages of dronabinol."

Source:
"MARINOL® (dronabinol) Capsules," (Abbott Laboratories: Abbott Park, IL, July 2006), pp. 11.
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2006/018651s025s026l...

(marijuana - withdrawal) "The withdrawal syndrome associated with dronabinol, the API [Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient] in Marinol®, produces symptoms in humans such as restlessness, irritability, mild agitation, anxiety, anger, insomnia, sleep EEG disturbances, nausea, decreased appetite, and decreased weight. Since a withdrawal syndrome is indicative of physical dependence, it is reasonable to conclude that generic dronabinol products (both naturally-derived [from the cannabis plant] or synthetically produced, and in hard or soft gelatin capsules) in sesame oil, will also produce physical dependence similar to those produced by Marinol®."

^{Editor's Note:
"Dronabinol, the active ingredient in MARINOL® (dronabinol) Capsules, is synthetic delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC). Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol is also a naturally occurring component of Cannabis sativa L. (Marijuana)." Sesame oil is an inactive ingredient of Marinol®.}

Source:
Federal Register, "Listing of Approved Drug Products Containing Dronabinol in Schedule III," Vol. 75, No. 210, Monday, November 1, 2010, pp. 67054 to 67059.
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-27502.pdf
===
"MARINOL® (dronabinol) Capsules," (Abbott Laboratories: Abbott Park, IL, July 2006), pp. 11.
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2006/018651s025s026l...

Marijuana - Synthetic Cannabinoids

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - definition) "Synthetic cannabinoids are substances chemically produced to mimic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana. When these substances are sprayed onto dried herbs and then consumed through smoking or oral ingestion, they can produce psychoactive effects similar to those of marijuana."

Source:
Sacco, Lisa N. and Finklea, Kristin M., "Synthetic Drugs: Overview and Issues for Congress," Congressional Research Service (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, October 28, 2011), p. 5.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42066.pdf

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - definition) "Synthetic cannabinoids are functionally similar to delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive principle of cannabis, and bind to the same cannabinoid receptors in the brain and peripheral organs."

Source:
Fattore, Liana and Fratta, Walter "Beyond THC: the new generation of cannabinoid designer drugs," Frontiers in Behaviorial Neuroscience (Lausanne, Switzerland: September 2011) Volume 5, Article 60, p. 1.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187647/pdf/fnbeh-05-00060.p...

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids) "... a new generation of synthetic cannabinoids has recently emerged on the market, which are sold on the Internet as herbal mixtures under the brand names of “Spice,” “Spice Gold,” “Spice Diamond,” “Arctic Spice,” “Silver,” “Aroma,” “K2,” “Genie,” “Scene” or “Dream,” and advertised as incense products, meditation potpourris, bath additives, or air fresheners. These products are often referred to as “herbal highs” or “legal highs” because of their legal status and purported natural herbal make-up."

Source:
Fattore, Liana and Fratta, Walter "Beyond THC: the new generation of cannabinoid designer drugs," Frontiers in Behaviorial Neuroscience (Lausanne, Switzerland: September 2011) Volume 5, Article 60, p. 1.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187647/pdf/fnbeh-05-00060.p...

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids) ‘Spice’ and other ‘herbal’ products are often referred to as ‘legal highs’ or ‘herbal highs’, in reference to their legal status and purported natural herbal make-up (McLachlan, 2009; Lindigkeit et al., 2009; Zimmermann et al., 2009). However, albeit not controlled, it appears that most of the ingredients listed on the packaging are actually not present in the ‘Spice’ products and it is seems likely that the psychoactive effects reported are most probably due to added synthetic cannabinoids, which are not shown on the label. There is no evidence that JWH, CP and/or HU [three chemically distinct groups of synthetic cannabinoids] compounds are present in all ‘Spice’ products or even batches of the same product. Different amounts or combinations of these substances seem to have been used in different ‘Spice’ products to produce cannabis-like effects. It is possible that substances from these or other chemical groups with a cannabinoid agonist or other pharmacological activity could be added to any herbal mixture (¹⁷) (Griffiths et al., 2009).

"The emergence of new, smokable herbal products laced with synthetic cannabinoids can also be seen as a significant new development in the field of so-called ‘designer drugs’. With the appearance, for the first time, of new synthetic cannabinoids, it can be anticipated that the concept of ‘designer drugs’ being almost exclusively linked to the large series of compounds with phenethylamine and tryptamine nucleus will change significantly (¹⁸). There are more than 100 known compounds with cannabinoid receptor activity and it can be assumed that further such substances from different chemical groups will appear (with direct or indirect stimulation of CB1 receptors)."

Source:
"Understanding the 'Spice' phenomenon," European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2009), p. 21.
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_80086_EN_Spice%20Themat...

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - origination) "Clemson University Professor John Huffman is credited with first synthesizing some of the cannabinoids, such as JWH-018, now used in “fake pot” substances such as K2. The effects of JWH-018 can be 10 times stronger than those of THC. Dr. Huffman is quoted as saying, “These things are dangerous—anybody who uses them is playing Russian roulette. They have profound psychological effects. We never intended them for human consumption.”

Source:
Sacco, Lisa N. and Finklea, Kristin M., "Synthetic Drugs: Overview and Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, October 28, 2011), p. 5.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42066.pdf

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - teen use) In 2011, 11.4% of high school seniors nationwide indicated using "synthetic marijuana" in the prior 12 months.

Source:
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2011). "Trends in Annual Prevalence of Use of Various Drugs" (Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse), p. 1.
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/data/11data/pr11t2.pdf
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pressreleases/11drugpr.pdf

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - legal bans) "Because of health concerns and the abuse potential of herbal incense products, many have been banned in several European countries, 18 U.S. states, and the U.S. military.^33,38 In March 2011, the FDA placed 5 synthetic cannabinoids (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol) on Schedule I, making them illegal to possess or sell in the United States.³⁸"

Source:
Pierre, Joseph M., "Cannabis, synthetic cannabinoids, and psychosis risk: What the evidence says," Current Psychiatry (Parsippany, NJ: September 2011) Vol. 10, No. 9, p. 56.
http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/pdf/1009/1009CP_Pierre.pdf

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - scheduling) "On March 1, 2011, the DEA used its temporary scheduling authority and issued a final rule to place five synthetic cannabinoids on the list of controlled substances under Schedule I of the CSA.26 The five substances are

• 1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole (JWH-018);
• 1-butyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole (JWH-073);
• 1-[2-(4-morpholinyl)ethyl]-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole (JWH-200);
• 5-(1,1-dimethylheptyl)-2-[(1R,3S)-3-hydroxycyclohexyl]-phenol (CP-47,497); and
• 5-(1,1-dimethyloctyl)-2-[(1R,3S)-3-hydroxycyclohexyl]-phenol (cannabicyclohexanol; CP-47,497 C8 homologue).

Pursuant to the temporary scheduling authority, these substances will remain on the list of Schedule I controlled substances for one year, and then may be given one six-month temporary extension. To remain on Schedule I thereafter, the substances would need to be permanently scheduled within the CSA."

Source:
Sacco, Lisa N. and Finklea, Kristin M., "Synthetic Drugs: Overview and Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, October 28, 2011), p. 6.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42066.pdf

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - pending legislation) Almost all of the 50 states (except Michigan) had laws concerning synthetic cannabinoids either introduced or passed as of October 31, 2011.

Source:
Gray, Heather, "Summary of Synthetic Cannabinoid Bills," National Alliiance for Model State Drug Laws (Santa Fe, NM: October 31, 2011)
http://www.namsdl.org/documents/SummaryofSyntheticCannabinoidBills10.31....

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - research) "There is shared concern among researchers that adding these substances to Schedule I could hinder medical research. As previously mentioned, Professor Huffman did not intend for K2 to be consumed by humans. He is, however, against adding synthetic cannabinoids to Schedule I, asserting that there is still much to learn about synthetic cannabinoids and that placing them on Schedule I would create too many hurdles for researchers who need to access these drugs.⁵⁸ Professor Huffman has created several synthetic cannabinoids that are seen as showing promise in treating skin cancers, pain, and inflammation."

Source:
Sacco, Lisa N. and Finklea, Kristin M., "Synthetic Drugs: Overview and Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, October 28, 2011), p. 13.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42066.pdf

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - drug testing) "Most of the synthetic cannabinoids added as not-listed ingredients to Spice products are very difficult to detect by commonly used drug screening procedures.Apart from the analogs of THC such as HU-210, the structure of these new synthetic cannabinoids differs from that of THC, so that they probably will not trigger a positive test for cannabinoids in immunoassays of body fluids."

Source:
Fattore, Liana and Fratta, Walter "Beyond THC: the new generation of cannabinoid designer drugs," Frontiers in Behaviorial Neuroscience (Lausanne, Switzerland: September 2011) Volume 5, Article 60, p. 4.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187647/pdf/fnbeh-05-00060.p...

(marijuana - synthetic cannabinoids - online monitoring) "A dramatic online snapshot of the Spice phenomenon as an emerging trend has been recently given by an important web mapping program, the Psychonaut Web Mapping Project, a European Commission-funded project involving researchers from seven European countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, and UK), which aims to develop a web scanning system to identify newly marketed psychoactive compounds, and their combinations (e.g., ketamine and Spice, cannabis and Spice), on the basis of the information available on the Internet (Psychonaut Web Mapping Research Group, 2010). As a major result of the Project, a new and updated web-based database is now widely accessible to implement a regular monitoring of the web for novel and recreational drugs."

Source:
Fattore, Liana and Fratta, Walter "Beyond THC: the new generation of cannabinoid designer drugs," Frontiers in Behaviorial Neuroscience (Lausanne, Switzerland: September 2011) Volume 5, Article 60, p. 3.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187647/pdf/fnbeh-05-00060.p...

Marijuana - Driving

(marijuana - driving) "We found only limited evidence to support the claim that cannabis use increases accident risk. Participants who had driven under the influence of cannabis in the previous year appeared to be no more likely than drug-free drivers to report that they had had an accident in the previous 12 months. Prima facie, this would seem to suggest that cannabis-intoxicated driving is not a risk factor for non-fatal accidents. In this sense, the results would support those of Longo et al. (2000b) who found no relationship between recent cannabis use and driver culpability for non-fatal accidents."

Source:
Jones, Craig; Donnelly, Neil; Swift, Wendy; Weatherburn, Don, "Driving under the influence of cannabis: The problem and potential countermeasures," Crime and Justice Bulletin, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Syndey, Australia: September 2005). p. 11.
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/CJB87.pdf/$file/CJB87.pdf

(marijuana - driving - smartphones) "Although for the mobile phone conversation and cannabis studies the reaction times were slightly different, they were still comparable. The same visual stimulus was used and was presented in the same visual scene. When reaction times under each condition were compared with the baseline reaction times measured, alcohol gave a 12.5% increase in reaction times, cannabis a 21% increase, a hands-free mobile phone conversation increased reaction times by 26.5%, texting by 37.4%, using a smartphone for social networking by 37.6% and using a mobile phone for a hand-held mobile phone conversation increased reaction times by 45.9% compared to the baseline condition. Thus, using a smartphone for social networking resulted in a greater impairment to reaction times than alcohol, cannabis, hand held mobile phone conversations and texting, but less than a hand held mobile conversation."

Source:
Basacik, D.; Reed N. & Robbins, R., "Smartphone use while driving: A simulator study," Institute of Advanced Motorists (London, United Kingdom: Transport Research Laboratory, 2011), pp. 37-38.
http://www.iam.org.uk/images/stories/Policy_Research/PPR592_secure.pdf

(marijuana - driving) "A review of over a dozen of these [laboratory] experiments reveals three findings. First, after using marijuana, people drive more slowly. In addition, they increase the distance between their cars and the car in front of them. Third, they are less likely to attempt to pass other vehicles on the road. All of these practices can decrease the chance of crashes and certainly limit the probability of injury or death if an accident does occur. These three habits may explain the slightly lower risk of accidents that appears in the epidemiological studies. These results contrast dramatically to those found for alcohol. Alcohol intoxication often increases speed and passing while decreasing following distance, and markedly raises the chance of crashes.(632)"

Source:
Carter, Gregory T.; Earleywine, Mitchell; McGill, Jason T., "Exhibit B: Statement of Grounds," Rulemaking petition to reclassify cannabis for medical use from a Schedule I controlled substance to a Schedule II (Office of Lincoln D. Chafee, Governor Rhode Island and Office of Christine O. Gregoire, Governor of Washington: Letter to Michelle Leonhard, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, November 30, 2011), p. 37.
http://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/healthcare/petition/combined_docum...

(marijuana - driving) "Cannabis use impairs cognitive, memory and psycho-motor performance in ways that may impair driving.¹⁰ Recent data suggest that approximately 5% of Canadian drivers/adults report driving after cannabis use in the past year.³⁹ Large-scale epidemiological studies using different methodologies (e.g., retrospective epidemiological and case control studies) have found that cannabis use acutely increases the risk of motor vehicle accident (MVA) involvement and fatal crashes among drivers.^40,41 Recent reviews have found the increase in risk to be approximately 1.5-3.0, an increase which is substantially lower, however, than that in alcohol-impaired drivers. The impairment from concurrent alcohol and cannabis use may be multiplicative, so individuals who drive under the influence of both drugs may be at higher risk for MVAs.⁴² An expert consensus view was that a THC concentration of 7-10 nanograms per millilitre in serum would produce impairment equivalent to that of 0.05% blood alcohol content (BAC). It was suggested that this level could serve as a 'per se' limit to define cannabis-impaired driving.⁴³ Current research suggests that acute impairment from cannabis typically clears 3-4 hours after use.⁴⁴

"This time span could be recommended to users as a minimum wait period before driving. The required wait before driving would need to be longer for higher doses, and would also vary on the basis of individual variation."

Source:
Fischer, Benedikt; Jeffries, Victoria; Hall, Wayne; Room, Robin; Goldner, Elliot; Rehm, Jürgen, "Lower Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines for Canada (LRCUG): A Narrative Review of Evidence and Recommendations," Canadian Journal of Public Health (Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Public Health Association, September/October 2011) Vol. 102, No. 5, p. 325.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22032094

(marijuana - driving) "There is considerable evidence from laboratory studies that cannabis (marijuana) impairs reaction time, attention, tracking, hand-eye coordination, and concentration, although not all of these impairments were equally detected by all studies (Couper & Logan, 2004a; Heishman, Stitzer, & Yingling, 1989; Gieringer, 1988; Moskowitz, 1985). In reviewing the literature on marijuana, Smiley (1998) concluded that marijuana impairs performance in divided attention tasks (i.e., a poorer performance on subsidiary tasks). Jones et al. (2003) adds that Smiley’s finding is relevant to the multitasking essence of driving, in particular by making marijuana impaired drivers perhaps less able to handle unexpected events. Interestingly, there is also evidence showing that, unlike alcohol, marijuana enhances rather than mitigates the individual’s perception of impairment (Lamers & Ramaekers, 1999; Robbe & O'Hanlon, 1993; Perez-Reyes, Hicks, Bumberry, Jeffcoat, & Cook, 1988). Robbe and O'Hanlon (1993) reported that in laboratory conditions, drivers under the influence of marijuana were aware of their impairment, which led them to decrease speed, avoid passing other vehicles, and reduce other risk-taking behaviors. Such was not the case with alcohol; for the authors reported that alcohol-impaired drivers were generally not aware of impairment, and therefore did not adjust their driving accordingly."

Source:
Lacey, John H.; Kelley-Baker, Tara; Furr-Holden, Debra; Voas, Robert B.; Romano, Eduardo; Ramirez, Anthony; Brainard, Katharine; Moore, Christine; Torres, Pedro; and Berning, Amy , "2007 National Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers," Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (Calverton, MD: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, December 2009), p. 9.
http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/Traffic%20Injury%20Control/Articles/Assoc...

(marijuana - driving) "Participants receiving active marijuana decreased their speed more so than those receiving the placebo cigarette during a distracted section of the drive, An overall effect of marijuana was seen for the mean speed during the distracted driving (PASAT [Paced Auditory Serial-Addition Test] section), While no other changes in driving performance were found, marijuana appeared to hinder practice effects on the PASAT task, suggesting individuals may not be able to adequately use information and experience previously acquired while under the influence of marijuana, While only minimal differences in driving performance were found, this failure to benefit from prior practice may be detrimental to driving performance ...

"The present study's subtle finding of decreased speed under the influence of acute marijuana is generally consistent with the literature, which has found that marijuana's effects on driving can be subtle ...

"The decreased speed during the simulated drive could be interpreted as an attempt to compensate for perceived cognitive impairment, Alternatively, marijuana may not have affected decision making and judgment and the reduction in speed would improve safety margins, While the clinical significance of a 3% to 5% decrease in speed may be questioned, previous research suggests such a decrease will result in approximately a 7% decrease in all injuries and a 15% decrease in fatalities (Nilsson 1981)."

Source:
Anderson, Beth M.; Rizzo, Matthew; Block, Robert I.; Pearlson, Godfrey D.; O'Leary, Daniel S., "Sex differences in the effects of marijuana on simulated driving performance," Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (San Francisco, CA: Haight Ashbury Publications, March 1, 2010), Vol. 42, No. 1.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=239347323

(marijuana - driving) "Epidemiological studies have been inconclusive regarding whether cannabis use causes an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents; in contrast, unanimity exists that alcohol use increases crash risk.30 In tests using driving simulation, neurocognitive impairment varies in a dose-related fashion, and symptoms are more pronounced with highly automatic driving functions than with more complex tasks that require conscious control.³¹ Cannabis smokers tend to over-estimate their impairment and compensate effectively while driving by utilizing a variety of behavioral strategies."

Source:
"Cannabis and the Regulatory Void: Background Paper and Recommendations," California Medical Association (Sacramento, CA: 2011), p. 10
http://www.cmanet.org/files/pdf/news/cma-cannabis-tac-white-paper-101411...

(marijuana - driving) "Cannabis is only considered a risk factor for traffic accidents if drivers operate vehicles after consuming the drug. Robbe (1994) found that 30% to 90% of his participants were willing to drive after consuming a typical dose of cannabis. This is consistent with a recent Australian survey in which more than 50% of users drove after consuming cannabis (Lenne, Fry, Dietze, & Rumbold, 2000). A self administered questionnaire given to 508 students in grades 10 to 13 in Ontario, Canada, found that 19.7% reported driving within an hour after using cannabis (Adlaf, Mann, & Paglia, 2003)."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues (Tallahassee, FL: School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 2004) Volume 34, Number 4, pp. 974-5.
http://www2.criminology.fsu.edu/~jdi/34n4.htm

(marijuana - driving) "Most of the research on cannabis use has been conducted under laboratory conditions. The literature reviews by Robbe (1994), Hall, Solowij, and Lemon (1994), Border and Norton (1996), and Solowij (1998) agreed that the most extensive effect of cannabis is to impair memory and attention. Additional deficits include problems with temporal processing, (complex) reaction times, and dynamic tracking. These conclusions are generally consistent with the psychopharmacological effects of cannabis mentioned above, including problems with attention, memory, motor coordination, and alertness.

"A meta-analysis by Krüger and Berghaus (1995) profiled the effects of cannabis and alcohol. They reviewed 197 published studies of alcohol and 60 studies of cannabis. Their analysis showed that 50% of the reported effects were significant at a BAC of 0.073 g/dl and a THC level of 11 ng/ml. This implies that if the legal BAC threshold for alcohol is 0.08 g/dl, the corresponding level of THC that would impair the same percentage of tests would be approximately 11 ng/ml."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues (Tallahassee, FL: School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 2004) Volume 34, Number 4, pp. 974-5.
http://www2.criminology.fsu.edu/~jdi/34n4.htm

(marijuana - driving) "Several studies have examined cannabis use in driving simulator and on-road situations. The most comprehensive review was done by Smiley in 1986 and then again in 1999. Several trends are evident and can be described by three general performance characteristics:

"1. Cannabis increased variability of speed and headway as well as lane position (Attwood, Williams, McBurney, & Frecker, 1981; Ramaekers, Robbe, & O'Hanlon, 2000; Robbe, 1998; Sexton et al., 2000; Smiley, Moskowitz, & Zeidman, 1981; Smiley, Noy, & Tostowaryk, 1987). This was more pronounced under high workload and unexpected conditions, such as curves and wind gusts.

"2. Cannabis increased the time needed to overtake another vehicle (Dott, 1972 [as cited in Smiley, 1986]) and delayed responses to both secondary and tracking tasks (Casswell, 1977; Moskowitz, Hulbert, & McGlothlin,
1976; Sexton et al., 2000; Smiley et al., 1981).

"3. Cannabis resulted in fewer attempts to overtake another vehicle(Dott, 1972) and larger distances required to pass (Ellingstad et al., 1973 [as cited in Smiley, 1986]). Evidence of increased caution also included slower speeds (Casswell, 1977; Hansteen, Miller, Lonero, Reid, & Jones, 1976; Krueger & Vollrath, 2000; Peck, Biasotti, Boland, Mallory, & Reeve, 1986; Sexton et al., 2000; Smiley et al., 1981; Stein, Allen, Cook, & Karl, 1983) and larger headways (Robbe, 1998; Smiley et al., 1987)."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues (Tallahassee, FL: School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 2004) Volume 34, Number 4, pp. 974-5.
http://www2.criminology.fsu.edu/~jdi/34n4.htm

(marijuana - driving) "Both Australian studies suggest cannabis may actually reduce the responsibility rate and lower crash risk. Put another way, cannabis consumption either increases driving ability or, more likely, drivers who use cannabis make adjustments in driving style to compensate for any loss of skill (Drummer, 1995). This is consistent with simulator and road studies that show drivers who consumed cannabis slowed down and drove more cautiously (see Ward & Dye, 1999; Smiley, 1999. This compensation could help reduce the probability of being at fault in a motor vehicle accident since drivers have more time to respond and avoid a collision. However, it must be noted that any behavioral compensation may not be sufficient to cope with the reduced safety margin resulting from the impairment of driver functioning and capacity."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues (Tallahassee, FL: School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 2004) Volume 34, Number 4, pp. 974-5.
http://www2.criminology.fsu.edu/~jdi/34n4.htm

(marijuana - driving) "Another paradigm used to assess crash risk is to use cross-sectional surveys of reported nonfatal accidents that can be related to the presence of risk factors, such as alcohol and cannabis consumption. Such a methodology was employed in a provocative dissertation by Laixuthai (1994). This study used data from two large surveys that were nationally representative of high school students in the United States during 1982 and 1989. Results showed that cannabis use was negatively correlated with nonfatal accidents, but these results can be attributed to changes in the amount of alcohol consumed. More specifically, the decriminalization of cannabis and the subsequent reduction in penalty cost, as well as a reduced purchase price of cannabis, made cannabis more appealing and affordable for young consumers. This resulted in more cannabis use, which substituted for alcohol consumption, leading to less frequent and less heavy drinking. The reduction in the amount of alcohol consumed resulted in fewer nonfatal accidents."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues (Tallahassee, FL: School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 2004) Volume 34, Number 4, pp. 974-5.
http://www2.criminology.fsu.edu/~jdi/34n4.htm

(marijuana - driving) "Both simulator and road studies showed that relative to alcohol use alone, participants who used cannabis alone or in combination with alcohol were more aware of their intoxication. Robbe (1998) found that participants who consumed 100 g/kg of cannabis rated their performance worse and the amount of effort required greater compared to those who consumed alcohol (0.05 BAC). Ramaekers et al. (2000) showed that cannabis use alone and in combination with alcohol consumption increased self-ratings of intoxication and decreased self-ratings of performance. Lamers and Ramaekers (2001) found that cannabis use alone (100 g/kg) and in combination with alcohol consumption resulted in lower ratings of alertness, greater perceptions of effort, and worse ratings of performance."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues (Tallahassee, FL: School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 2004) Volume 34, Number 4, pp. 974-5.
http://www2.criminology.fsu.edu/~jdi/34n4.htm

(marijuana - driving) "In conclusion, cannabis impairs driving behaviour. However, this impairment is mediated in that subjects under cannabis treatment appear to perceive that they are indeed impaired. Where they can compensate, they do, for example, by not overtaking, by slowing down and by focusing their attention when they know a response will be required. However, such compensation is not possible where events are unexpected or where continuous attention is required. Effects of driving behaviour are present up to an hour after smoking but do not continue for extended periods."

"Thus, not only is it problematic to estimate the percentage of accident involvements associated with cannabis use alone, there is no evidence that impairment resulting from cannabis use causes accidents. Attempts to alleviate these problems by calculating risk of culpability for an accident (rather than the risk of having an accident) suggest that cannabis may actually reduce responsibility for accidents."

Source:
Department for Transport, "Cannabis and driving: a review of the literature and commentary (No.12)," (London, United Kingdom: May 2000).
http://mapinc.org/url/raVdpnS5

(marijuana - cannabis, alcohol and driving) According to a literature review of the effects of alcohol on driving, "As with cannabis, alcohol use increased variability in lane position and headway (Casswell, 1979; Ramaekers et al., 2000; Smiley et al., 1981; Stein et al., 1983) but caused faster speeds (Casswell, 1977; Krueger & Vollrath, 2000; Peck et al., 1986; Smiley et al., 1987; Stein et al., 1983). Some studies also showed that alcohol use alone and in combination with cannabis affected visual search behavior (Lamers & Ramaekers, 2001; Moskowitz, Ziedman, & Sharma, 1976). Alcohol consumption combined with cannabis use also worsened driver performance relative to use of either substance alone. Lane position and headway variability were more exaggerated (Attwood et al., 1981; Ramaekers et al., 2000; Robbe, 1998) and speeds were faster (Peck et al., 1986).

"Both simulator and road studies showed that relative to alcohol use alone, participants who used cannabis alone or in combination with alcohol were more aware of their intoxication. Robbe (1998) found that participants who consumed 100 g/kg of cannabis rated their performance worse and the amount of effort required greater compared to those who consumed alcohol (0.05 BAC). Ramaekers et al. (2000) showed that cannabis use alone and in combination with alcohol consumption increased self-ratings of intoxication and decreased self-ratings of performance. Lamers and Ramaekers (2001) found that cannabis use alone (100 g/kg) and in combination with alcohol consumption resulted in lower ratings of alertness, greater perceptions of effort, and worse ratings of performance."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues, Dec. 2004, pp. 978.

(marijuana - cannabis, alcohol, and driving) "When compared to alcohol, cannabis is detected far less often in accident-involved drivers. Drummer et al. (2003) cited several studies and found that alcohol was detected in 12.5% to 79% of drivers involved in accidents. With regard to crash risk, a large study conducted by Borkenstein, Crowther, Shumate, Zeil and Zylman (1964) compared BAC in approximately 6,000 accident-involved drivers and 7,600 nonaccident controls. They determined the crash risk for each BAC by comparing the number of accident-involved drivers with detected levels of alcohol at each BAC to the number of nonaccident control drivers with the same BAC. They found that crash risk increased sharply as BAC increased. More specifically, at a BAC of 0.10, drivers were approximately five times more likely to be involved in an accident.

"Similar crash risk results were obtained when data for culpable drivers were evaluated. Drummer (1995) found that drivers with detected levels of alcohol were 7.6 times more likely to be culpable. Longo et al. (2000) showed that drivers who tested positive for alcohol were 8.0 times more culpable, and alcohol consumption in combination with cannabis use produced an odds ratio of 5.4. Similar results were also noted by Swann (2000) and Drummer et al. (2003)."

Source:
Laberge, Jason C., Nicholas J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy," Journal of Drug Issues, Dec. 2004, pp. 981.

Marijuana - Law and Policy

The U.S. Penal Code violations for marijuana and possible sentences:
Violation: "1000 kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of marihuana, or 1,000 or more marihuana plants regardless of weight."
Sentence: not "less than 10 years or more than life" "No person sentenced under this subparagraph shall be eligible for parole during the term of imprisonment imposed therein."

Violation: "100 kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of marihuana, or 100 or more marihuana plants regardless of weight."
Sentence: not "less than 5 years and not more than 40 years" "No person sentenced under this subparagraph shall be eligible for parole during the term of imprisonment imposed therein."

Violation: "less than 50 kilograms of marihuana, except in the case of 50 or more marihuana plants regardless of weight, 10 kilograms of hashish, or one kilogram of hashish oil"
Sentence: "not more than 5 years, a fine not to exceed the greater of that authorized in accordance with the provisions of title 18 or $250,000 if the defendant is an individual or $1,000,000 if the defendant is other than an individual, or both."

Source:
U.S. Code. Title 21, Chapter 13 -- Drug Abuse Prevention and Control -- Section 841, Prohibited Acts, pp. 406-407.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/usc.cgi?ACTION=RETRIEVE&FILE=$$xa$$busc21.wais&start=2866200&SIZE=47484&TYPE=PDF
http://mapinc.org/url/BzveMJOA

(marijuana - harm of use vs. harm of prohibition) "Based on the research to date, the harms associated with the actual use of cannabis likely pale in comparison with the widely observed harms attributable to cannabis prohibition. As such, policymakers should integrate the scientific research conducted on the likely impacts of current prohibitive approaches to cannabis use into the process of optimising cannabis policy."

Source:
Werb, Daniel; Fischer, Benedikt; and Wood, Evan, "Cannabis policy: Time to move beyond the psychosis debate," International Journal of Drug Policy (London, United Kingdom: International Harm Reduction Association: July 2010) Vol. 21, Issue 4, p. 262.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20381329

(marijuana - recommendation to reduce cannabis penalties)
"RECOMMENDATIONS

"1. The severity of punishment for a cannabis possession charge should be reduced. Specifically, cannabis possession should be converted to a civil violation under the Contraventions Act.

"The current law involves considerable enforcement and other criminal justice costs, as well as adverse consequences to individual drug offenders, with little evidence of a substantial deterrent impact on cannabis use, and at best marginal benefits to the public health and safety of Canadians. As a minimal measure, jail should be removed as a sentencing option for cannabis possession. The available evidence indicates that removal of jail as a sentencing option would lead to considerable cost savings without leading to increases in rates of cannabis use. Punishing cannabis possession with a fine only would be consistent with current practices and prevailing public opinion."

Source:
Single, Eric, "Cannabis Control in Canada: Options Regarding Possession" National Working Group on Addictions Policy (Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, May 1998).
http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/Library/studies/canfinal2.htm

(marijuana - The Netherlands and depenalization of cannabis use) "There is no evidence that the depenalization component of the 1976 policy, per se, increased levels of cannabis use. On the other hand, the later growth in commercial access to cannabis, after de facto legalization, was accompanied by steep increases in use, even among youth. In interpreting that association, three points deserve emphasis. First, the association may not be causal; we have already seen that recent increases occurred in the United States and Oslo despite very different policies. Second, throughout most of the first two decades of the 1976 policy, Dutch use levels have remained at or below those in the United States. And third, it remains to be seen whether prevalence levels will drop again in response to the reduction to a 5-g limit, and to recent government efforts to close down coffee shops and more aggressively enforce the regulations."

Source:
MacCoun, Robert and Reuter, Peter, "Interpreting Dutch Cannabis Policy: Reasoning by Analogy in the Legalization Debate," Science (New York, NY: American Association for the Advancement of Science, October 3, 1997), pp. 50-51.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44564392/Interpreting-Dutch-Cannabis-Policy-Re...

(marijuana - risk of arrest) "It is also important to point out that in no Western country is a user at much risk of being criminally penalized for using marijuana. The rates of arrest for past-year marijuana users in Western countries are typically less than or equal to 3 percent (Kilmer, 2002; Room et al., 2010). More important, almost none of those convicted of simple possession is incarcerated or receives a fine exceeding $1,000 (Pacula, MacCoun, et al., 2005)."

Source:
Kilmer, Beau; Caulkins, Jonathan P.; Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo; MacCoun, Robert J.; Reuter, Peter H., "Altered State? Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets" Drug Policy Research Center (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2010), p. 13.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP315.pdf

(marijuana - use in decriminalized states) "In California and Ohio, surveys before and after decriminalisation showed that cannabis use increased, but not at a greater rate than in US states which had not decriminalised cannabis. Single (1989) also reviewed data from two large US national surveys of drug use in the 1970s that compared rates of cannabis use in states which had and had not decriminalised cannabis. He found that the prevalence of cannabis use increased in all states, with a larger increase in those states which had not decriminalised (Single, 1989)."

Source:
Donnelly, Neil; Hall, Wayne; Christie, Paul, "Cannabis Expiation Notice Scheme on levels and patterns of cannabis use in South Australia: evidence from the National Drug Strategy Household Surveys 1985–1995," Department of Health and Aged Care (Canberra, Australia: May 1998), p. 12.
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/332B63EE0E0E0C39CA25703700041DAC/$File/mono37.pdf

(marijuana - use in decriminalized countries) "The available evidence suggests that removal of the prohibition against possession itself (decriminalization) does not increase cannabis use. In addition to the Dutch experience from 1976 to 1983, we have similar findings from analysis of weaker decriminalization (with fines retained for the offense of simple possession of small quantities) in 12 US states (Single, 1989) and South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory (Hall, 1997; McGeorge & Aitken, 1997). The fact that Italy and Spain, which have decriminalized possession for all psychoactive drugs, have marijuana use rates comparable to those of neighboring countries provides further support."

Source:
MacCoun, Robert and Reuter, Peter, "Evaluating alternative cannabis regimes," British Journal of Psychiatry (London, United Kingdom: American Royal College of Psychiatrists, February, 2001) Vol. 178, p. 127.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/reprint/178/2/123.pdf

(marijuana - recommendation by the Canadian Senate's Special Committee on Illegal Drugs) "... the Government of Canada amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to create a criminal exemption scheme. This legislation should stipulate the conditions for obtaining licenses as well as for producing and selling cannabis; criminal penalties for illegal trafficking and export; and the preservation of criminal penalties for all activities falling outside the scope of the exemption scheme."

Source:
"Cannabis: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy," report of the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs (Ottawa, Canada: Senate of Canada, September 2002), p. 46.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/rep-e/sum...

(marijuana - harm of cannabis laws) "Our conclusion is that the present law on cannabis produces more harm than it prevents. It is very expensive of the time and resources of the criminal justice system and especially of the police. It inevitably bears more heavily on young people in the streets of inner cities, who are also more likely to be from minority ethnic communities, and as such is inimical to police-community relations. It criminalizes large numbers of otherwise law-abiding, mainly young, people to the detriment of their futures. It has become a proxy for the control of public order; and it inhibits accurate education about the relative risks of different drugs including the risks of cannabis itself."

Source:
Police Foundation of the United Kingdom, "Drugs and the Law: Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971", April 4, 2000. The Police Foundation, based in London, England, is a nonprofit organization presided over by Charles, Crown Prince of Wales, which promotes research, debate and publication to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in the UK.

Marijuana - Research

(marijuana - violence per the 1972 National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse) "Rather than inducing violent or aggressive behavior through its purported effects of lowering inhibitions, weakening impulse control and heightening aggressive tendencies, marihuana was usually found to inhibit the expression of aggressive impulses by pacifying the user, interfering with muscular coordination, reducing psychomotor activities and generally producing states of drowsiness lethargy, timidity and passivity."

Source:
Shafer, Raymond P., et al, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, Ch. III, (Washington DC: National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, 1972).
http://druglibrary.net/schaffer/Library/studies/nc/ncc3.htm

(marijuana - harm per the 1972 National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse) "Marihuana's relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it. This judgment is based on prevalent use patterns, on behavior exhibited by the vast majority of users and on our interpretations of existing medical and scientific data. This position also is consistent with the estimate by law enforcement personnel that the elimination of use is unattainable."

Source:
Shafer, Raymond P., et al, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, Ch. V, (Washington DC: National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, 1972).
http://druglibrary.net/schaffer/Library/studies/nc/ncrec.htm

(marijuana - no link to lung cancer) "These 19 diverse studies [analyzed by researchers in this article] offer biological evidence for the potential association between marijuana smoking and lung cancer. Most studies support an association between marijuana smoking and premalignant lung cancer findings, although small observational studies fail to demonstrate such an association."

"... Despite these findings, the small number of observational studies fail to demonstrate a clear association between marijuana smoking and diagnoses of lung cancer. Therefore, we must conclude that no convincing evidence exists for an association between marijuana smoking and lung cancer based on existing data."

Source:
Mehra, Reena; Moore, Brent A.; Crothers, Kristina; Tetrault, Jeanette; Fiellin, David A., "The Association Between Marijuana Smoking and Lung Cancer: A Systemic Review," Archives of Internal Medicine, (Chicago, IL: American Medical Association, July 10, 2006), Vol. 166, p. 1365.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/166/13/1359.pdf

(marijuana - amelioration of cancer) "We found that moderate marijuana use was significantly associated with reduced risk of HNSCC [head and neck squamous cell carcinoma]. This association was consistent across different measures of marijuana use (marijuana use status, duration, and frequency of use). Diminished risk of HNSCC did not differ across tumor sites, or by HPV [human papillomavirus] 16 antibody status. Further, we observed that marijuana use modified the interaction between alcohol and cigarette smoking, resulting in a decreased HNSCC risk among moderate smokers and light drinkers, and attenuated risk among the heaviest smokers and drinkers."

Source:
Liang, Caihua; McClean, Michael D.; Marsit, Carmen; Christensen, Brock; Peters, Edward; Nelson, Heather H.; Kelsey, Karl T, "A Population-Based Case-Control Study of Marijuana Use and Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma," Cancer Research Prevention (New Milford, CT: American Association for Cancer Research, August 2009), p. 766.
http://cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2009/07/2...

(marijuana - no association with cancer risk) "Nonetheless, and contrary to our expectations, we found no positive associations between marijuana use and lung or UAT cancers ... Despite several lines of evidence suggesting the biological plausibility of marijuana use being carcinogenic (1), it is possible that marijuana use does not increase cancer risk, as suggested in the recent commentary by Melamede."

Source:
Mia Hashibe, Hal Morgenstern, Yan Cui, Donald P. Tashkin, Zuo-Feng Zhang, Wendy Cozen, Thomas M. Mack, and Sander Greenland, "Marijuana Use and the Risk of Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Tract Cancers: Results of a Population-Based Case-Control Study," Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (October 2006), p. 1833.
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/15/10/1829.full.pdf

(marijuana - regular adolescent use) In an ethnographic study of adolescents who were regular marijuana users, researchers at the University of British Columbia, concluded,

"Thematic analysis revealed that these teens differentiated themselves from recreational users and positioned their use of marijuana for relief by emphasizing their inability to find other ways to deal with their health problems, the sophisticated ways in which they titrated their intake, and the benefits that they experienced. These teens used marijuana to gain relief from difficult feelings (including depression, anxiety and stress), sleep difficulties, problems with concentration and physical pain. Most were not overly concerned about the risks associated with using marijuana, maintaining that their use of marijuana was not 'in excess' and that their use fit into the realm of 'normal.'

Conclusion: Marijuana is perceived by some teens to be the only available alternative for teens experiencing difficult health problems when medical treatments have failed or when they lack access to appropriate health care."

Source:
Bottorff, Joan L , Johnson, Joy L, Moffat, Barbara M, and Mulvogue, Tamsin, "Relief-oriented use of marijuana by teens," Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy (Vancouver, BC: April 2009), pp. 4-7.
http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/pdf/1747-597X-4-7.pdf

(marijuana - adolescent motivation) The World Health Organization noted that, while some studies indicate that adolescents who use marijuana might be more likely to drop out of high school and experience job instability in young adulthood, "the apparent strength of these cross-sectional studies ... has been exaggerated because those adolescents who are most likely to use cannabis have lower academic aspirations and poorer high school performance prior to using cannabis, than their peers who do not."

Source:
Hall, W., Room, R., & Bondy, S., WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use August 28, 1995 (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 1998).
http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/hemp/general/who-probable.htm

(marijuana - cannabis and memory) "Nevertheless, when considering all 15 studies (i.e., those that met both strict and more relaxed criteria) we only noted that regular cannabis users performed worse on memory tests, but that the magnitude of the effect was very small. The small magnitude of effect sizes from observations of chronic users of cannabis suggests that cannabis compounds, if found to have therapeutic value, should have a good margin of safety from a neurocognitive standpoint under the more limited conditions of exposure that would likely obtain in a medical setting."

Source:
Grant, Igor, et al., "Non-Acute (Residual) Neurocognitive Effects Of Cannabis Use: A Meta-Analytic Study," Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (Cambridge University Press: July 2003), 9, pp. 687-8.
http://www.csdp.org/research/348art2003.pdf

(marijuana - decriminalization and increased use) "Proponents of criminalization attribute to their preferred drug-control regime a special power to affect user behavior. Our findings cast doubt on such attributions. Despite widespread lawful availability of cannabis in Amsterdam, there were no differences between the 2 cities [Amsterdam and San Francisco] in age at onset of use, age at first regular use, or age at the start of maximum use."

"Our findings do not support claims that criminalization reduces cannabis use and that decriminalization increases cannabis use."

Source:
Reinarman, Craig; Cohen, Peter D.A.; Kaal, Hendrien L., "The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and in San Francisco," American Journal of Public Health (Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, May 2004) Vol 94, No. 5, pp. 840 and 841.
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/reprint/94/5/836

(marijuana - decriminalization and increased use) "... our results indicate that the increase in participation was due to individuals over 30 delaying giving up cannabis use as a result of its changed legal status, not an increase in use by younger people. This ¢nding provides an explanation of why US studies based on youth fail to ¢nd that decriminalization has an impact on the probability of cannabis use, while studies based on adults and youth, or just adults, do find a positive association between decriminalization and participation in cannabis use."

Source:
Cameron, Lisa & Williams, Jenny, "Cannabis, Alcohol and Cigarettes: Substitutes or Complements?" The Economic Record (Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: The Economic Society of Australia, March 2001), p. 32.
http://cms.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/semcms/res_base/semcms_com_www/upload/hom...

(marijuana - organ transplants) "To prove their compliance with this policy, patients are subjected to blood and urine toxicology screening until [organ] transplantation. If a patient tests positive for a prohibited substance after signing this substance abuse policy, he or she will no longer be considered a candidate for liver transplantation at any center in Region 10.

"Substance abuse policies are necessary to help ensure that potential liver transplant recipients will be reliable stewards of the new organ. Despite this, concern exists that substance abuse policies may have an inappropriate and disproportionate impact on marijuana users. Firstly, many in the general public would argue that marijuana users should not have limited access to transplantation, particularly within the context of medical marijuana (6, 11). As an example, in May 2008, significant press coverage was given to the case of Timothy Garon, who reportedly died after having been refused a liver transplant, in part, because of his use of medical marijuana (12). Secondly, current toxicology screening methods produce a positive toxicology screen for cannabinoids up to two months after the patient’s last use (13). In contrast, other toxicology screening tests such as those for cocaine and alcohol become negative shortly after use. As a result, it may be more difficult for chronic marijuana users to demonstrate abstinence prior to life-ending decompensation of their liver disease."

=========

"Overall, the survival of marijuana users, as defined by this manuscript, with chronic liver disease who present for transplant evaluation is not significantly different from marijuana non-users."

Source:
Ranneya, D. N.; Ackera, W. B.; Al-Holoua, S. N.; Ehrlichmana, L.; Leea, D. S.; Lewina, S. A.; Nguyena, C.; Petersona, S. F.; Sella, K.; Kubusa, J.; Reidb, D.; and Englesbea, M. J., "Marijuana Use in Potential Liver Transplant Candidates," American Journal of Transplantation (Edmonton, Alberta: 2009) Vol. 8, Issue 2, pp. 280 and 284.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121545468/PDFSTART

Marijuana - Tables

(1985-2008 - cannabis potency by year) The Cannabis Potency Monitoring Project, product of a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is based at the University of Mississippi's School of Pharmacy. Each year since 1975, the Project has issued reports concerning the THC levels of seized cannabis samples sent to them by law enforcement officials. The figures in the following table were published in March 2009.

Editors Note: Applying three-year moving averages to smooth the data and iron out peaks and valleys finds that the three-year average percentage change in cannabis potency from 2005 to 2008 was +3.9% for commercial 'marijuana', -1.3% for 'sensimilla,' and +6.6% for 'kilobricks.' Average changes for loose-leaf, CBD, CBC, and CBN were negligible.

The most recent three-year average potency values for these seized samples were 5.8% THC for commercial 'marijuana,' 11.2% THC for 'sinsimilla,' 9.9% THC for 'buds,' 6.5% THC for 'kilobricks,' and 2.1% THC for 'loose-leaf.' The most recent three-year moving potency averages for the cannibinoids were 0.47% for CBC, 0.30% for CBC, and 0.26% for CBN.

Cannabis Potency by Year
Year	Marijuana	Sinsemilla	Buds	Kilobricks	Loose-Leaf	CBD	CBC	CBN
2008	5.81	11.46	10.14	6.85	1.82	.41	.26	.27
2007	6.11	11.08	9.81	6.73	2.09	.48	.25	.24
2006	5.58	11.20	9.73	6.03	2.30	.53	.25	.28
2005	5.25	11.63	9.81	5.67	2.19	.46	.27	.32
2004	5.38	11.91	9.19	5.41	2.16	.46	.25	.28
2003	4.97	11.59	8.39	5.13	2.18	.46	.24	.23
2002	5.11	11.36	8.03	5.07	2.25	.42	.24	.22
2001	5.02	9.55	8.88	4.99	2.31	.47	.23	.28
2000	4.67	12.80	9.33	4.40	2.31	.45	.21	.34
1999	4.18	13.38	9.97	3.84	2.24	.43	.21	.38
1998	4.22	12.33	8.40	4.66	2.41	.41	.21	.23
1997	4.26	11.62	8.71	4.66	2.79	.40	.25	.20
1996	3.87	9.23	6.94	4.44	2.26	.42	.23	.23
1995	3.73	7.51	6.01	3.84	2.01	.31	.20	.31
1990	3.24	10.10	6.27	3.76	--	.38	.18	.19
1985	2.83	7.28	5.67	3.80	--	.28	.14	.23

^{Notes: All numbers are percentages. The THC percentages are "Non-normalized Delta-9 THC Concentrations in Different Forms by Year Confiscated 1985 - Present," and cannabinoid percentages (CBD, CBC, CBN) are "Non-Normalized Cannabinoid Averages of Illicit Cannabis Samples by Year Seized." The cannabinoids CBN = Cannabidiol, CBC = Cannabichromene and CBN = Cannabinol.}

Source:

Quarterly Report #104, Dec. 16, 2008 - March 15, 2009, University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project (Oxford, MS: National Center for Natural Products Research, a Division of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2008), Mahmoud A. ElSohly, PhD, Director, NIDA Marijuana Project (NIDA Contract #N01DA-5-7746), pp. 8 and 10.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ondcp/mpmp_report_104.pdf
Quarterly Report #100, Dec. 16, 2007 - March 15, 2008, University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project (Oxford, MS: National Center for Natural Products Research, a Division of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2008), Mahmoud A. ElSohly, PhD, Director, NIDA Marijuana Project (NIDA Contract #N01DA-5-7746), pp. 8 and 10.
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/pdf/FullPotencyReports.pdf
Quarterly Report #76, Nov. 9, 2001-Feb. 8, 2002, University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project (Oxford, MS: National Center for the Development of Natural Products, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2002), Mahmoud A. ElSohly, PhD, Director, NIDA Marijuana Project (NIDA Contract #N01DA-0-7707), Table 3, p. 8.

Crime - Tables

(1980-2010 - Total, marijuana and drug arrests by year) Although the intent of a 'War on Drugs' may have been to target drug smugglers and 'King Pins,' over half (52.1%) of the 1,638,846 total 2010 arrests for drug abuse violations were for marijuana -- a calculated total of 853,839. Of those, an estimated 750,591 people (45.8%) were arrested for marijuana possession alone. By contrast in 2000, a total of 734,497 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses, of which 646,042 (40.9%) were for possession alone. From 1996-2010, there were 10.1 million arrests for marijuana possession and 1.4 million arrests for the sales and trafficking of marijuana, equaling a total of 11.5 million marijuana arrests during that fifteen year time frame.

US Arrests
Year	Total Arrests	Total Drug Arrests	Total Marijuana Arrests	Marijuana Trafficking/Sale Arrests	Marijuana Possession Arrests	Total Violent Crime Arrests	Total Property Crime Arrests

2010	13,120,947	1,638,846	853,839	103,247	750,591	552,077	1,643,962
2009	13,687,241	1,663,582	858,408	99,815	758,593	581,765	1,728,285
2008	14,005,615	1,702,537	847,863	93,640	754,224	594,911	1,687,345
2007	14,209,365	1,841,182	872,720	97,583	775,137	597,447	1,610,088
2006	14,380,370	1,889,810	829,627	90,711	738,916	611,523	1,540,297
2005	14,094,186	1,846,351	786,545	90,471	696,074	603,503	1,609,327
2004	13,938,071	1,746,570	773,731	87,329	686,402	586,558	1,644,197
2003	13,639,479	1,678,192	755,186	92,300	662,886	597,026	1,605,127
2002	13,741,438	1,538,813	697,082	83,096	613,986	620,510	1,613,954
2001	13,699,254	1,586,902	723,628	82,519	641,109	627,132	1,618,465
2000	13,980,297	1,579,566	734,497	88,455	646,042	625,132	1,620,928
1999	14,355,600	1,557,100	716,266	85,641	630,626	644,770	1,676,100
1998	14,528,300	1,559,100	682,885	84,191	598,694	675,900	1,805,600
1997	15,284,300	1,583,600	695,201	88,682	606,519	717,750	2,015,600
1996	15,168,100	1,506,200	641,642	94,891	546,751	729,900	2,045,600

1995	15,119,800	1,476,100	588,964	85,614	503,350	796,250	2,128,600
1990	14,195,100	1,089,500	326,850	66,460	260,390	705,500	2,217,800
1980	10,441,000	580,900	401,982	63,318	338,664	475,160	1,863,300

Total Fifteen Years 1996-2010	211,832,563	24,918,351	11,469,120	1,362,571	10,106,550	9,365,904	25,464,875

Source:

Narrative analysis for this Fact by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts.
=====
"Crime in the United States 2010," FBI Uniform Crime Report (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, September 2011), Table 29.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-...
Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-...
=====
"Crime in the United States 2009," FBI Uniform Crime Report (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, September 2010), Table 29.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_29.html
Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations:
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/arrests/index.html.
=====
"2008 Crime in the United States," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, September 2009), Table 29.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/data/table_29.html
Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations:
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/arrests/index.html.
=====
"2007 Crime in the United States," (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, September 2008), Table 29.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_29.html
Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations:
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/arrests/index.html
=====
"2006 Crime in the United States," (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, September 2007), Table 29.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_29.html
Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations:
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/arrests/index.html
=====
"Crime in the United States 2005," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, September 2006), Table 29.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_29.html
Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations:
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/arrests/index.html
=====
"Crime in the United States 2004," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2005) Table 29.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/persons_arrested/table_29.html
Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations:
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/persons_arrested/index.html
=====
"Crime in the United States 2003," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2004), p. 269, Table 4.1 & and p. 270, Table 29.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2003/03sec4.pdf
=====
"Crime in the United States 2002," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, 2003).
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_02/html/web/arrested/04-table29.html
=====
"Crime in the United States 2001," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2002), p. 232, Table 4.1 & and p. 233, Table 29. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2001/01sec4.pdf
=====
"Crime in the United States - 2000," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), p. 216, Tables 29 and 4.1.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2000/toc00.pdf
=====
"Crime in the United States - 1999," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2000), pp. 211-212.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/1999/toc99.pdf
=====
"Crime in the United States - 1998," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1999), pp. 209-219.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/1998/toc98.pdf
=====
"Crime in the United States - 1997," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1998), p. 221, Table 4.1 & p. 222, Table 29.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/1997/toc97.pdf
=====
"Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1996" Federal Bureau of Investigation (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1997), p. 213, Table 4.1 & p. 214, Table 29.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/1996/toc96.pdf
=====
"Crime in the United States - 1995," FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1996), pp. 207-208.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/1995/toc95.pdf
=====
FBI, UCR for the US 1990 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1991), pp. 173-174.
FBI, UCR for the US 1980 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1981), pp. 189-191.

(1995-2010 - marijuana arrests percent share of total drug arrests by year) The following table references the drug and marijuana arrests columns in the "US Arrests" table. It pairs "Total Marijuana Arrests," "Marijuana Trafficking/Sale Arrests," and "Marijuana Possession Arrests" against "Total Drug Arrests" to arrive at the percentage each has of the total for the respective years. This table shows the growing dominance of marijuana arrests among total drug arrests in the U.S., rising from a percentage of 39.9% of total drug arrests in 1995 to 52.1% of such arrests in 2010. Further, while arrests for sales and trafficking have wavered a few percentage points around 5-6% of total drug arrests, the numbers driving marijuana's increased dominance of drug arrests are those for simple possession, jumping from 34.1% in 1995 to 45.8% in 2010. Arrests for marijuana possession have risen from about a third to about a half of all drug abuse violation arrests over the fifteen year 1995-2010 period.

US Marijuana Arrests Percentage Share of Total Drug Arrests
- Year -	Marijuana Total Arrests	Marijuana Trafficking & Sale Arrests	Marijuana Possession Arrests

2010	52.1%	6.3%	45.8%
2009	51.6%	6.0%	45.6%
2008	49.8%	5.5%	44.3%
2007	47.4%	5.3%	42.1%
2006	43.9%	4.8%	39.1%
2005	42.6%	4.9%	37.7%
2004	44.3%	5.0%	39.3%
2003	45.0%	5.5%	39.5%
2002	45.3%	5.4%	39.9%
2001	45.6%	5.2%	40.4%
2000	46.5%	5.6%	40.9%
1999	46.0%	5.5%	40.5%
1998	43.8%	5.4%	38.4%
1997	43.9%	5.6%	38.3%
1996	42.6%	6.3%	36.3%
1995	39.9%	5.8%	34.1%

Source:

FBI Uniform Crime Reports 1970-2010. Please see cite sources for U.S. Arrests table.

(1996-2010 - drug and marijuana arrests percent change over prior year) The following table references the total, drug and marijuana arrests columns in the "US Arrests" table. It shows the percentage change over the prior year for "Total Arrests," "Total Drug Arrests," "Total Marijuana Arrests," "Marijuana Trafficking & Sale Arrests," and "Marijuana Possession Arrests." Total Arrests in the United States have ranged between 13.1 million and 15.3 million over the fifteen year period (1996-2010), with the annual percent change for that time span averaging -0.9%. Drug arrests have ranged between a low of 1.4 million in 1996 and a high of 1.9 million in 2006, with an average percent change over the fifteen year period of +0.8%.

The percentage change values for marijuana arrests confirm their upward trend. Total marijuana arrests in 2010 (853,839) were +45% higher than those in 1995 (588,964). The year that the percentage growth in marijuana arrests peaked - 2003 - began a five-year upward trend largely driven by arrests for marijuana possession. For simple possession, the average annual percent change covering 1996-2010 equaled +2.8%; in contrast, that value for trafficking and sales was +1.4%.

US Total, Drug, and Marijuana Arrests Percentage Change over Prior Year
Year	Total Arrests	Total Drug Arrests	Total Marijuana Arrests	Marijuana Trafficking & Sale Arrests	Marijuana Possession Arrests

2010	-4.1%	-1.5%	-0.5%	3.4%	-1.1%
2009	-2.3%	-2.3%	1.2%	6.6%	0.6%
2008	-1.4%	-7.5%	-2.8%	-4.0%	-2.7%
2007	-1.2%	-2.6%	5.2%	7.6%	4.9%
2006	2.0%	2.4%	5.5%	0.3%	6.2%
2005	1.1%	5.7%	1.7%	5.7%	1.7%
2004	2.2%	4.1%	2.5%	-5.4%	3.5%
2003	-0.7%	9.1%	8.3%	11.1%	8.0%
2002	0.3%	-3.0%	-3.7%	0.7%	-4.2%
2001	-2.0%	0.5%	-1.5%	-6.7%	-0.8%
2000	-2.6%	1.4%	2.5%	3.3%	2.4%
1999	-1.2%	-0.1%	4.9%	1.7%	5.3%
1998	-4.9%	-1.5%	-1.8%	-5.1%	-1.3%
1997	0.8%	5.1%	8.3%	-6.5%	10.9%
1996	0.3%	2.0%	8.9%	10.8%	8.6%

15-year Average	-0.9%	0.8%	2.6%	1.4%	2.8%

Source:

FBI Uniform Crime Reports 1970-2010. Please see cite sources for U.S. Arrests table.

Quit Taking People To Jail For Weed

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Marijuana Facts from DrugWarFacts.org

Marijuana - Data

Marijuana - Effects

Marijuana - Synthetic Cannabinoids

Marijuana - Driving

Marijuana - Law and Policy

Marijuana - Research

Marijuana - Tables

Crime - Tables

About Us