http://www.globaldrugpolicy.com Since the passage of Amendment 20 in November 2000, over two percent of Colorado's population has registered with the state to possess and use marijuana for medical purposes. Entry to the registry requires the recommendation of a physician for any of eight conditions, but 94 percent of users are registered for severe pain. The average age of registrants is 40 years old, and 69 percent of registrants are male. The registry requires the recommendation of a physician, and while more than 1,200 of the state's physicians have signed a medical marijuana registry form, 49 percent of all users were registered by one of just fifteen physicians. To service this demand, Colorado is now home to more than a third of America's marijuana dispensaries. Colorado's embrace of medical marijuana is due to high preexisting use of marijuana, minimal barriers to amending the state's constitution, difficulties regulating the medical marijuana industry, and entrepreneurial physicians. The social effects of the medicalization of marijuana remain impressionistic, but preliminary data are concerning. http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/issues/Vol_5_Issue_1/Mile_High.pdf http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/issues/Vol_5_Issue_1/Mile_High.pdf Nevada's gamble on legalizing marijuana as medicine has been putting its citizens in the hole in many ways. Grow operations have been abusing regulations and unscrupulous doctors have been exploiting the loose guidelines put in place in 2001. Law enforcement has seen an increase in drug-related violence and environmental costs from cleaning up marijuana grows. Now the state has been targeted for legalization efforts, but its citizens are fighting back. http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/issues/Vol_5_Issue_1/Medical_Marijuana_Nevada.pdf http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/issues/Vol_5_Issue_1/Medical_Marijuana_Nevada.pdf In 1998 many Oregon voters approved the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program through a state ballot initiative and believed, because of misleading campaign ads, that it was for a small percentage of people who were sick and dying. Now 12 years later, as of April 1, 2011, there are over 40,000 marijuana cardholders of which more than 35,793 or 90% of those cards have been issued for chronic pain and 35% of the cards were issued by one doctor and an additional 59% by ten doctors. This article will review Oregon's marijuana program, which is being used to promote marijuana as medicine and is in direct conflict with federal laws which have never deemed smoked marijuana as medicine, as well as reveal impacts to the environment, businesses, the treatment industry, law enforcement, youth attitudes, addiction rates, children, and the community. http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/issues/Vol_5_Issue_1/Impact_of_Oregon.pdf http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/issues/Vol_5_Issue_1/Impact_of_Oregon.pdf