In recent years, the question to many physicians around the United States has morphed from, “How about some Viagra, doc?” to, “How about some medical marijuana, doc?” California exemplifies the bookends of the medical marijuana/legalization movement. The movement’s major victory was in November of 1996, when Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, was voted into law, creating a process by w...

Plants of the Cannabis species, commonly known as marijuana, contain numerous psychoactive components, including the primary psychoactive compound D-9-tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC). The World Health Organization (WHO) describes cannabis as the most widely used, cultivated, and trafficked illicit drug in the world, with an estimated 147 million people using the drug annually. Consistent with worldw...

This paper studies the impact of local disamenities on property values, by focusing on the lega lization of recreational marijuana dispensaries in Washington State. Policymakers have long expressed concerns that the positive effects of the legalization—e.g., increases in tax revenue—are well spread spatially, but the negative effects are highly localized. We use changes in property values to me...

C or marijuana, is one of the most commonly used illicit drugs, but the debate rages in several countries regarding whether or not it should be legalized. With marijuana’s legalization come serious considerations for the medical community, such as What are the consequences of long-term use? What are the medical and psychological risks? and Who are the people most vulnerable to its negative effe...

Historically, the products of Cannabis sativa (or marijuana) have been used in socioreligious rites and for medicinal and recreational purposes. Multiple medical purposes, related or not to religious rituals, were prevalent in the ancient world (Assyria, Egypt, Rome, Greece and China) and India (54). Marijuana was used less widely in Western Europe and North America (54,55). Because reliable cl...

M arijuana is a very old drug with documented use reaching back to Chinese emperors and Egyptian pharaohs. Ancient civilizations described the medicinal value of marijuana, promoting it for its healing powers, antiinflammatory properties, and as a treatment for many different disease states. In the several intervening millennia, the medicinal claims surrounding marijuana use have been validated...