Federal laws treat all other patients currently using medicinal marijuana as criminals, the same as recreational users. Organizations that have endorsed medical access to marijuana include the AIDS Action Council, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Public Health Association, California Medical Association, California Society of Addiction Medicine, Lymphoma Foundation of America, National Association of People With AIDS, National Nurses Society on Addictions, the New England Journal of Medicine , and others. Since 1996, a majority of voters in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state have voted in favor of ballot initiatives to remove criminal penalties for seriously ill people who grow or possess medicinal marijuana. Recent studies show that the vast majority of Americans favor treatment and education over law enforcement. In these states, cultivation and distribution remain criminal offenses.
Decriminalization saves a tremendous amount in enforcement costs.
Marijuana purchased through criminal markets is not subject to the same quality control standards as are legal consumer goods. Laws that prohibit the sale or possession of paraphernalia reduce the likelihood that individuals will smoke through devices which cool and filter the smoke. Because vigorous enforcement of the marijuana laws forces the roughest, toughest criminals to take over marijuana trafficking, prohibition causes violence and increases predatory crime. Prohibition invites corruption within the criminal justice system by giving officials easy, tempting opportunities to accept bribes, steal and sell marijuana, and plant evidence on innocent people. Marijuana prohibition creates a mixed drug market, which puts marijuana consumers in contact with hard-drug dealers.