MEDICINAL POT STUDY FINDS ISLE USERS MOSTLY OVER 40

WASHINGTON (AP) 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.

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.

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.

Some law enforcement officials said that the laws allowing doctors to
recommend that a patient be eligible to use marijuana have, at times,
complicated efforts to seize illegal marijuana or to prosecute some cases,
according to the GAO report.