A new study shows that 1.4 million Californians have used medical cannabis and an overwhelming majority of those users (92%) believe cannabis helped treat the symptoms of a serious medical condition. The study, which will be published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, challenges the commonly held perception that medical cannabis is being overused by healthy people and demonstrates that California’s medical cannabis laws are providing real relief to a lot of people. 

This scientific data is important and timely, given that lawmakers, voters, and the courts will be making important decisions in the next two years that will affect who can get medical cannabis and how for years to come. Those choices need to be informed by facts, not misperceptions. 

Read the abstract and buy copies of “Prevalence of medical marijuana use in California, 2012”, Drug and Alcohol Review (2014), DOI 10.111/dar. 12207 here.