Cal. NORML Estimates Over 150,000 Medical Marijuana Patients in California
Growing Acceptance and Usage on Pacific Coast
Medical cannabis usage in California continues to grow rapidly, causing California NORML to raise its estimate of the number of legal patients in California to over 150,000 as of November, 2005, up from 75,000 in Jan. 2004.
This compares to just 30,000 patients reported by California NORML in a 2002 survey of patients' groups, registration programs, and physicians (Dale Gieringer, "The Acceptance of Medicinal Marijuana in the U.S." Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, Vol 3#1 (Jan-Mar 2003)).
The new estiimate is based on data from Oregon, which has a mandatory registration system for medical marijuana patients. Oregon reported 12,040 patients as of Nov. 1, 2005, or about 0.34% of the population (http://www.dhs.state.or.us/publichealth/mm/data.cfm) This equates to 120,000 patients in California, assuming the same rate of medical marijuana usage per capita. In actuality, California has a higher per capita rate of medical marijuana usage than Oregon because its law is more liberal. Unlike Oregon's law, Prop. 215 allows marijuana to be used for any illness, including psychiatric complaints, which aren't covered in Oregon. California doctors report that at least 20-25% of the patient population use cannabis for psychiatric complaints. Adjusting for this, the California patient population may be estimated at over 150,000.
The concentration of medical marijuana patients varies between different regions of the state, being highest in Northern California, which has the greatest number of patients' groups, dispensaries, and medical cannabis resources. Local registration programs indicate that medical cannabis usage is as high as 1% among adults in Oakland and Mendocino County. Canadian surveys indicate that (non-authorized) medical usage of marijuana is as high as 2% - 4% in the general population.
The rate of medical cannabis use varies greatly between different states with medical marijuana laws, as shown in the following table (Note Oregon usage has increased since these data were reported).
|
# Patients registered |
Patients/ 100,000 population |
# Physicians recommending |
Year program started | |
| Oregon | 11,100 | 324 | >1000 | 1999 |
| Alaska | 185 | 28 | 1999 | |
| Colorado | 891 | 20 | 182 | Mar 2001 |
| Nevada | 700 | 31 | 145 | Oct 2001 |
| Hawaii | 2600 | 206 | 73 | Jan 2001 |
There is also growing acceptance of medical cannabis in the medical community. Over 1,500 physicians are known to have recommended marijuana in California, and some 5% of all licensed physicians in Oregon.
Under current federal law marijuana is classified as a Schedule One substance, meaning it has "no currently accepted medical use in the United States." However, the growing numbers of medical marijuana patients and physicians indicates this classification is obsolete.
Despite their growing numbers, medfical users remain a small minority of the total marijuana-using population. California's 150,000 patients represent less than 10% of the estimated 2 million Californians who are current marijuana users according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.