STATE POT LAWS DON'T INCREASE USE

Walnut Creek - Laws in some Western states that allow marijuana use for
medical reasons have not resulted in widespread use by the ill patients
those laws target or the doctors approved to recommend the drug, a
government report released Friday indicated.

In California, there is no state registry to officially tally the number of
authorized medical marijuana users. But using data from four Northern
California counties, General Accounting Office researchers found that about
0.31 percent of the collective population - or 4,598 people - was
registered to use marijuana for medical reasons.

California became one of the first states to sanction the use of marijuana
for medical purposes, with the approval of Proposition 215 in 1996. Oregon
and Alaska did the same in 1998 and the Hawaii state Legislature signed off
on its cannabis law in 2000.

Figures from the GAO inquiry showed that only about 2,454 people - 0.05
percent on average of all Alaska, Hawaii and Oregon residents - were
registered with their state governments to treat about a dozen ailments
with marijuana.

- -Knight-Ridder Newspapers