(Global Prevalence of Cannabis Use) "Cannabis use has increased globally, particularly in Asia since 2009. Although epidemiological data is not available, experts from the region report a perceived increase in use. The regions with a prevalence of cannabis use that is higher than the global average continue to be West and Central Africa (12.4 per cent), Oceania (essentially Australia and New Zealand, 10.9 per cent), North America (10.7 per cent) and Western and Central Europe (7.6 per cent).

"Although Raich established Congress’s constitutional authority to enact the existing federal prohibition on marijuana, principles of federalism prevent the federal government from mandating that the states support or participate in enforcing the federal law. While state resources may be helpful in combating the illegal use of marijuana, Congress’s ability to compel the states to enact similar criminal prohibitions, to repeal medical marijuana exemptions, or to direct state police officers to enforce the federal law remains limited.

(Support for Legalized Sale of Marijuana in the US Among Youth, 2011) "Asked whether they thought it should be legal to sell marijuana if it were legal to use it, about three in five (62%) said 'yes.' However, about 80% of those answering 'yes' (51% of all respondents) would permit sale only to adults. A small minority (11%) favored the sale to anyone, regardless of age, while 28% said that sale should not be legal even if use were made legal, and 10% said they 'don’t know.'"

(Legal Definition of Personal Use and Allowable Amounts of Cultivated Cannabis) "Policy changes in Belgium in relation to cannabis use, possession and cultivation may also have had some impact on the shift in production from the Netherlands to Belgium. In 2001, the Belgian government agreed to stop prosecution for use of cannabis and cultivation of cannabis for personal use, on the grounds that it did not constitute a nuisance and was not problematic (Decorte, 2007). However, it was not until 2003 that guidelines outlining what was permitted were implemented.

(Teen Marijuana Use in Medical Marijuana States) "Our results are not consistent with the hypothesis that the legalization of medical marijuana caused an increase in the use of marijuana and other substances among high school students. In fact, estimates from our preferred specifications are consistently negative and are never statistically distinguishable from zero."

(Medical Cannabis and the Constitution's Commerce Clause) "Congress has exercised its Commerce Clause authority to categorically ban marijuana.

Cannabis and Multiple Sclerosis

(Cannabinoids and Multiple Sclerosis) "Using an objective measure, we saw a beneficial effect of inhaled cannabis on spasticity among patients receiving insufficient relief from traditional treatments. Although generally well-tolerated, smoking cannabis had acute cognitive effects. Larger, long-term studies are needed to confirm our findings and determine whether lower doses can result in beneficial effects with less cognitive impact."

(NIDA's Federal Medical Cannabis Program) "It is a judicial fluke that the National Institute on Drug Abuse has provided medical marijuana to a handful of patients (never more than 32, currently 4 surviving) as the outcome of the settlement in a lawsuit pressed in 1976 by a man with cannabis-responsive glaucoma. That settlement became the basis for the FDA’s Compassionate Investigational New Drug Study program for patients with marijuana responsive conditions. No patient has been enrolled since 1992, when the George H. W.

(Safety of Cannabis) "Generally, as analgesics, cannabinoids have minimal toxicity and present no risk of lethal overdose.⁴⁸ End-organ failure secondary to medication effect has not been described and no routine laboratory monitoring is required in patients taking these medications."