The MN Medical Marijuana policy is well-intentioned, and a step in the right direction. If the goal of this policy is to provide relief to as many sick people as possible, then this policy will not be effective enough. This policy allows qualified patients to use medical marijuana in pill form, or as oil in a vaporizing device. Patients are not allowed to smoke marijuana or ingest “edibles”. There is no scientific evidence that smoking or eating marijuana is more harmful than other forms of marijuana (citation). In fact, vaporizing marijuana oil can cause one to be extremely “high”, which is what many opposers of marijuana want to avoid. There are many potential beneficiaries who do not qualify to be in the MN program. Marijuana has been
…show more content…
according to Jocelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, “That fear [that medical marijuana laws will increase teen use of marijuana], raised in 1996, when California passed the first effective medical-marijuana law, has not come true. According to the official California Student Survey teen marijuana use in California rose steadily from 1990 to 1996, but began falling immediately after the medical-marijuana law was passed. Among ninth graders, marijuana use in the last six months fell by more than 40 percent from 1995-96 to 2001-02 (the most recent available figures)" (qtd. in procon.org). Mitch Earleywine, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, and Karen O’Keefe, JD, Attorney and Legislative Analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, stated in their Sep. 2005 report ‘Marijuana Use by Young People: The Impact Of State Medical Marijuana Laws’, “When states consider proposals to allow the medical use of marijuana under state law, the concern often arises that such laws might 'send the wrong message' and therefore cause an increase in marijuana use among young people.The available evidence strongly suggests that this hypothesis is incorrect and that enactment of state medical marijuana laws has not increased adolescent marijuana use" (qtd. in
according to Jocelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, “That fear [that medical marijuana laws will increase teen use of marijuana], raised in 1996, when California passed the first effective medical-marijuana law, has not come true. According to the official California Student Survey teen marijuana use in California rose steadily from 1990 to 1996, but began falling immediately after the medical-marijuana law was passed. Among ninth graders, marijuana use in the last six months fell by more than 40 percent from 1995-96 to 2001-02 (the most recent available figures)" (qtd. in procon.org). Mitch Earleywine, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, and Karen O’Keefe, JD, Attorney and Legislative Analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, stated in their Sep. 2005 report ‘Marijuana Use by Young People: The Impact Of State Medical Marijuana Laws’, “When states consider proposals to allow the medical use of marijuana under state law, the concern often arises that such laws might 'send the wrong message' and therefore cause an increase in marijuana use among young people.The available evidence strongly suggests that this hypothesis is incorrect and that enactment of state medical marijuana laws has not increased adolescent marijuana use" (qtd. in