Older, Less Regulated Medical Marijuana Programs Have Much Greater Enrollment Rates Than Newer 'Medicalized' Programs.

ABSTRACT: Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have passed laws implementing medical marijuana programs. The nineteen programs that were in operation as of October 2014 collectively had over one million participants. All states (including D.C.) with medical marijuana laws require physicians directly or indirectly to authorize the use of marijuana at their discretion, yet little is known about how medical marijuana programs vary regarding adherence to basic principles of medical practice and associated rates of enrollment. To explore this, we analyzed marijuana programs according to seven components of traditional medical care and pharmaceutical regulation. We then examined enrollment rates, while controlling for potentially confounding state characteristics. We found that fourteen of the

SUBMITTER: Williams AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4845727 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature