When it comes to delivery options, medicinal marijuana patients like to consume their cannabis or eat marijuana-infused edibles according to a new study conducted by the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.
“The RAND study surveyed 1,994 people in four western states in October 2013, a transition period when Colorado and Washington had legalized recreational marijuana (though the sales wouldn’t start until a couple months later) and Oregon and New Mexico had medical cannabis programs.
While only 3 percent of the surveyed recreational users vaporize marijuana and 8 percent consume edibles, 18 percent of their medical counterparts vaporize and 32 percent eat edibles, according to the study, signifying a potential shift away from smoked cannabis.”
The study also showed that a surprisingly low number of patients use dispensaries to obtain medicine.
“Medical patients rely on dispensaries (32 percent) and dealers (23 percent) much more than recreational users, 2 percent of whom buy from dispensaries and 4 percent from dealers. More than half of recreational users say they got the pot for free (58 percent) or paid a friend (29 percent) when they last got high, while those figures for medical patients (13 and 16 percent, respectively) were significantly lower.”
Read the full study, published in the journal Addiction, and titled “In the weeds: a baseline view of cannabis use among legalizing states and their neighbors.”
Battling Cannaphobia in the Tech Industry DOES MASSROOOTS EXIST?
It’s called cannaphobia or cannabias, and many have experienced it. Cannaphobia occurs when a person holds an unreasonable fear or antipathy of cannabis and the people who use it.
“People in the Silicon Valley talk like they have these very progressive views, but when it comes to cannabis, they are really very regressive,” said Dietrich in an interview with Marijuana Business Daily.
Deitrich made his comments following a controversy where Dell Computers declined to judge a high-profile contest among start-up companies after learning that a cannabis-related company was competing.
“Many tech companies, including household names like Facebook and Google, discriminate against marijuana companies by not allowing them to advertise on their sites. There’s a disconnect between tech leaders and the tech public on this issue. There needs to be public pressure put on these people to get things to change,” Dietrich said.
See how one city came together to fight cannaphobia in this video.
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Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash