Part I: Marijuana and prohibition

1. What is marijuana

2. Who uses marijuana?

3. What are the risks of using marijuana?

4. What is known about the nonmedical benefits of using marijuana?

5. What are the medical benefits of marijuana?

6. How stringent is marijuana enforcement in the United States?

Part II: National legalization and its consequences

7. What are the pros and cons of legalization generally?

8. How is legalization of marijuana different from legalization of other drugs?

9. What if we treated marijuana like alcohol?

10. How would alcohol-style legalization affect me personally?

11. Between marijuana prohibition and commercial legalization: is there any middle ground?

Part III: The crazy quilt of conflicting policies today

12. Where are we, and how did we get here?

13. What's really happening in medical

marijuana states?

14. What is happening in Colorado and Washington?

15. What is happening in Alaska, Oregon, Jamaica, and Uruguay?

16. What happens when marijuana laws clash?

Part IV: The future of marijuana legalization

17. What might the future hold?

18. What do the authors think ought to be done about marijuana?

pt. I. Marijuana and prohibition today

1. What is marijuana and what would it mean to legalize it?

What is marijuana legalization?

What is marijuana?

How does it feel to get high?

What are the active ingredients in marijuana?

What are sinsemilla, "commercial-grade" marijuana, hashish, and hash oil?

What is "ditchweed"?

Has marijuana been getting more potent?

Is higher potency bad?

How long does intoxication last?

How long can marijuana use be detected?

Is medical marijuana the same as illegal marijuana?

What is synthetic marijuana (Spice or K2)?

2. Who uses marijuana?

How many people use marijuana?

How is marijuana consumed?

How has marijuana use changed over time?

How much marijuana do users consume?

Can marijuana use lead to dependence or addiction?

What are the typical patterns of marijuana use?

How common is heavy marijuana use?

How does marijuana use vary across the country?

What share of marijuana use is high-potency marijuana?

How much do users spend on marijuana?

3. How is marijuana produced and distributed today?

How and where is marijuana grown today?

How is marijuana currently distributed?

How much is marijuana marked up between farm gate, wholesale, and retail?

Are prices lower in the Netherlands? California? Elsewhere?

Since marijuana is just a plant, why is it so expensive?

Is marijuana really the nation's leading cash crop?

Does marijuana production really use $5 billion worth of electricity in the United States each year?

4. How stringent is marijuana enforcement in the U.S.?

Who gets arrested for marijuana possession?

What happens after those arrests?

Who gets arrested for marijuana dealing, production, and importing?

Are federal marijuana sentences similar to sentences for heroin and cocaine?

How many people are in prison for marijuana offenses?

How much does marijuana incarceration and enforcement cost?

How much marijuana is seized and eradicated?

5. What are the risks of using marijuana?

Why is it difficult to measure the consequences of marijuana use?

How do researchers study the risks of marijuana use?

What is the likelihood of becoming dependent on marijuana?

How bad is marijuana dependency compared to dependency on other drugs?

How many users seek treatment for problems with marijuana?

Does marijuana treatment work?

Can users experience a fatal overdose from marijuana?

Can users experience a nonfatal overdose from using too much marijuana?

Does marijuana use cause emphysema and other respiratory problems?

Does marijuana use cause cancer?

How much harm does secondhand marijuana smoke cause?

Is marijuana a "gateway drug"?

Does using marijuana cause schizophrenia and other mental health problems?

Does using marijuana influence crime and delinquency?

Does marijuana use affect education and employment?

Does marijuana use cause automobile crashes?

Does parental marijuana use influence child welfare? 6. What is known about the nonmedical benefits of using marijuana?

Why don't we know more about the benefits of marijuana use?

Would we know more about the benefits if it were legal?

Is there a "stoned" way of thinking?

Is "stoned thinking" valuable?

Does marijuana use enhance creativity?

Can marijuana enhance athletic performance?

What role does cannabis play in worship?

So there's no real evidence of any benefits?

Why should mere pleasure count as a benefit?

7. What are the medicinal benefits of using marijuana?

Does marijuana have medical value?

Why isn't marijuana available as a regular prescription drug?

But isn't smoking unhealthy?

How about using one or more cannabinoids instead of the whole plant?

How much "medical marijuana" use is actually medical?

pt. II. Legalization and its consequences

8. What are the pros and cons of legalization generally?

What does it mean to legalize a drug?

Are there shades of legalization?

Why have drug laws in the first place?

Why even consider legalizing a substance whose use creates harm?

Wouldn't the results of a policy that treated marijuana like alcohol be an improvement over the current mess?

But wasn't alcohol prohibition in the United States a complete failure?

But doesn't everyone know that Prohibition led to a big increase in homicides?

How much of the increase in consumption after legalization would reflect increased heavy use rather than increased causal use?

Can't the effects of marketing be reined in by regulations and taxes?

What about legal availability without free trade?

Isn't it impossible to make someone better off by coercing behavioral change?

If people choose to harm themselves with drugs, why is that anyone else's business?

But isn't everyone with an addictive personality already addicted to something?

If the results of legalization are uncertain, why not just try it out, and go back to the current system if legalization doesn't work?

9. How is legalization of marijuana different from legalization of other drugs?

How does legalizing marijuana compare to legalizing all drugs?

Isn't marijuana different from other drugs? It's natural, it's not addictive, and it's not toxic

If marijuana accounts for half of all drug arrests, would legalizing marijuana free up half of our prison cells?

How much drug-related crime, violence, and corruption would marijuana legalization eliminate?

Would legalization increase marijuana use and dependence by as much as legalization of crack and other drugs would increase their markets?

Would more marijuana use lead to more alcohol abuse, or less?

If alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, what's the logical justification for one being legal and the other illegal?

Could it be reasonable to support legalizing marijuana but not other drugs?

Can two reasonable people sensibly disagree about marijuana legislation?

10. What is the context of the marijuana legalization debate?

How does legalization differ from decriminalization or depenalization?

How many countries allow commercial marijuana production?

Has support for legalization in the United States been growing?

Who supports and opposes marijuana legalization in the United States?

Who supported Proposition 19 and why?

Why are voters sometimes bolder than the people they elect?

Would marijuana legalization violate international conventions?

Does Dutch policy violate these international conventions?

What are the consequences for violating international conventions?

Could these international treaties be changed?

11. What if marijuana were treated like alcohol?

What special regulations could apply to legal marijuana?

Could advertising be restricted in the United States?

How could marijuana be taxed?

Would regulations and taxes in practice approach the public health ideal?

How much enforcement would regulation and taxation require?

Would there be any marijuana-related arrests after legalization?

Why aren't prices in Dutch coffee shops and California medical dispensaries a good indicator of prices after legalization?

How much would legal marijuana cost to produce?

How many people would be employed in marijuana production?

What would the pretax retail price be for unbranded marijuana?

What would the after-tax retail price be for unbranded marijuana?

What would the retail price be for branded and other forms of marijuana?

Would businesses give legal marijuana away free?

How much would consumption increase?

Does the marijuana trade fund drug violence in Mexico?

Does legalization make sense from an overall social welfare (benefit-cost) perspective?

12. Could one state legalize marijuana if the federal government didn't?

Could a state simply repeal its marijuana laws?

Could a state regulate and tax a substance that the federal government still prohibited?

Waht about the reverse : if the federal government legalized marijuana, could a state still prohibit it?

What could the federal government do if one state legalized marijuana for nonmedical use?

What is the federal government doing in states that allow medical marijuana?

How would production and production costs change if marijuana were legal in one state but not the entire country?

How would legalization in one state affect markets and use in other states?

Does it matter whether legalization is enacted by legislation or by voter proposition?

Could states learn from one another's experience?

13. How would marijuana legalization affect me personally?

If I'm an adult regular marijuana user?

If I'm dependent on marijuana?

If I'm an occasional marijuana user?

If I'm not currently a marijuana user?

If I'm a medical marijuana patient?

If I'm a marijuana grower?

If I lead a Mexican drug trafficking organization (DTO)?

If I'm a parent of a teenager?

If I'm an employer?

14. Between marijuana prohibition and commercial legalization : is there any middle ground?

Is there a middle ground between legalization and prohibition?

What has been learned from depenalization and decriminalization?

What about legalizing the way Portugal did (not do)?

What about imitating the Dutch approach?

What about just allowing home production, as Alaska does?

What about creating user co-ops, as in Spain?

What about a very liberal medical marijuana system?

What about limiting the quantity any user can buy?

Couldn't users go to physicians for nonmedical marijuana, making it the doctor's business to prevent problem-use patterns?

What if distribution were controlled by a government monopoly?

15. Can industrial hemp save the planet?

What is industrial hemp?

Do other countries allow legalized hemp?

Could the United States allow industrial hemp without legalizing marijuana?

Would allowing industrial hemp in the United States save the planet?

How big is the potential market if the United States legalized industrial hemp?

16. What do the authors think about marijuana legalization?

Angela Hawken

Jon Caulkins

Mark Kleiman

Beau Kilmer.