The data come from the California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a representative health survey of 7,525 California adults produced by the Public Health Institute in partnership with the CDC. Researchers found that in total, five percent of California adults said they had used medical marijuana for a "serious medical condition."
"Our study’s results lend support to the idea that medical
marijuana is used equally by many groups of people and is not
exclusively used by any one specific group," the authors write. There
were similar usage rates among both men and women. Adults of all ages
reported medical marijuana use, although young adults were the most
likely to use it.
There were some small differences in
medical marijuana use across members of different races, although the
authors stress that "the absolute difference in prevalence between the
racial/ethnic groups is less than three percentage points, which may not
have much importance in practical terms."
Despite being used in 23 states, medical marijuana still
faces a considerable amount of skepticism. In an interview last year
former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg called it "one of the great
hoaxes of all time." California narcotics police lobbyist John Lovell said earlier this year that "California’s medical marijuana law is a giant con job.”
This
study refutes these notions. "Our study contradicts commonly held
beliefs that medical marijuana is being overused by healthy
individuals," the authors write. "The most common reasons for use
include medical conditions for which mainstream treatments may not
exist, such as for migraines, or may not be effective, including for
chronic pain and cancer."
In considering the efficacy
of any kind of medical treatment, we should listen first and foremost to
the patients. The debate over medical marijuana has largely been
dominated by vested interests and advocacy groups on either side -
patients' voices have been either silent or ignored completely.
This
study provides a helpful corrective, and in this case the patients are
speaking loud and clear in near-unanimity: medical marijuana works.