STUDY: MOST MEDICAL POT USERS OLDER MEN

WASHINGTON - The typical medicinal marijuana user is likely to
resemble someone from the Baby Boom generation - or older - rather
than a 20-something poster child, according to a congressional study.
Data collected in Hawaii and Oregon - two of the eight states allowing
marijuana use for medical treatment - show the majority of users are
males, 40 years old or older, who take the drug for severe pain or
persistent muscle spasms, said the report.

The study by the General Accounting Office, which covered Alaska and
California as well, also said the relaxed drug laws in those four
states have had minimal impact on crimefighting, although they at
times complicate prosecution of drug cases.

The GAO found that a total of about 2,450 people in Oregon, Hawaii and
Alaska use marijuana for medical purposes - accounting for no more
than .05 percent of the population in any of the states.

More than 70 percent of registered users in each of those three states
were age 40 or older. In Hawaii and Oregon, about 70 percent of the
users were men, and most were taking marijuana to treat severe pain
and persistent muscle spasms. Such information was not available for
Alaska or California.

Alaska had the only registered user under 18 years old, and Oregon had
145 users between the ages of 19 and 29.

The report provided no statewide data for California. That state's law
does not require medicinal marijuana users to register, although about
4,500 people have done so voluntarily in four of the state's 58
counties, the study said.

Some law enforcement officials said that while crimefighting was not
harmed, the laws allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana at times has
complicated efforts to seize illegal marijuana or to prosecute some
cases, according to the GAO report.

In some cases, law enforcement officials said the marijuana laws
resulted in ``a general softening'' in attitudes among the public
toward marijuana, the report said, and some officials were concerned
about conflicts that arise with federal law enforcement.

For example, according to the report, an Oregon police official cited
a series of cases in which suspects were arrested for distributing
marijuana for profit, but were able to obtain medical marijuana
registry cards after their arrests, stymieing prosecutors.

Some local law enforcement officials in California questioned how
effectively they could prosecute criminal marijuana cases since the
state has no limit on the amount of marijuana that can be held by a
patient or a caregiver.

In Northern California, Humboldt County officials said marijuana
growers are allowed to grow hundreds of plants while claiming to be a
medical caregiver to multiple patients, and no documentation is required.

While Alaska, Oregon and Hawaii have established limits, some law
enforcement officials in those states said they too were less likely
to pursue cases that could be shielded by the provisions.

The Bush administration disagreed with some of the report's
findings.

The state marijuana laws have resulted in a ``worsening of relations
between federal, state and local law enforcement,'' Robert F.
Diegelman, an acting U.S. assistant attorney general, wrote in a
review of the report.

The laws create ``legal loopholes for drug dealers and marijuana
cultivators to avoid arrest and prosecution,'' he said.

The GAO examined only four of the eight states that have allowed
medical uses for marijuana. The other states are Nevada, Colorado,
Washington and Maine.