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

Abstract

Lucas et al. [1] recently stated that 87% of a sample (n = 473) of medical cannabis patients in Canada reported substituting marijuana for either alcohol, illicit substances or prescription drugs. The 87% figure was prominently displayed in both the abstract and the first sentence of the results section, making it appear to be the main result of the study. Indeed, the headline 87% finding gained momentum in popular media and news sources, as journalists at The Atlantic [2] and The Washington Post [3] used the finding as evidence that barriers to access medical marijuana are fuelling the United States problems with other drugs.This assertion appears, however, to be an extrapolation from an inadequately worded question. The three questions that were likely to have been the basis for the studys 87% figure are: