Pubdate: Sat, 30 Nov 2002
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Section: State Digest
Page: A4
Note: The 63 page report, which we recommend those interested in medicinal 
cannabis read, is available as a .pdf file at 
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03189.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

STATE POT LAWS DON'T INCREASE USE

Walnut Creek - Laws in some Western states that allow marijuana use for 
medical reasons have not resulted in widespread use by the ill patients 
those laws target or the doctors approved to recommend the drug,  a 
government report released Friday indicated.

In California, there is no state registry to officially tally the number of 
authorized medical marijuana users.  But using data from four Northern 
California counties, General Accounting Office researchers found that about 
0.31 percent of the collective population - or 4,598 people - was 
registered to use marijuana for medical reasons.

California became one of the first states to sanction the use of marijuana 
for medical purposes, with the approval of Proposition 215 in 1996.  Oregon 
and Alaska did the same in 1998 and the Hawaii state Legislature signed off 
on its cannabis law in 2000.

Figures from the GAO inquiry showed that only about 2,454 people - 0.05 
percent on average of all Alaska, Hawaii and Oregon residents - were 
registered with their state governments to treat about a dozen ailments 
with marijuana.

- -Knight-Ridder Newspapers
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom