Whether medical marijuana is ever substituted for other substances is not the full story

Abstract

Lucaset al. [1] recently stated that 87% of a sample(n= 473) of medical cannabis patients in Canadareported substituting marijuana for either alcohol, illicitsubstances or prescription drugs. The 87%figure wasprominently displayed in both the abstract and thefirstsentence of the results section, making it appear to bethe main result of the study. Indeed, the headline‘87%’finding gained momentum in popular mediaand news sources, as journalists atThe Atlantic[2]andThe Washington Post[3] used thefinding as evi-dence that barriers to access medical marijuana arefuelling the United States’problems with other drugs.This assertion appears, however, to be an extrapolationfrom an inadequately worded question.
Theodore L. Caputi
Theodore L. Caputi
Economics & Health Researcher

My research interests include public health, health innovation, and health care.