Medical Marijuana Laws for Patients: Creating a cross-sectional legal dataset of medical marijuana patient related laws in order to measure the law and examine trends across the United States

The U.S. federal government makes marijuana use illegal under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, classifying it as a Schedule I drug with no currently accepted medical use. Although illegal at the federal level, 21 states have legalized its use. To examine variation in the law across jurisdictions, we created a legal dataset of state medical marijuana patient related laws.

Laws for 50 states and DC were researched; relevant statutes were collected by two legal researchers using Lexis and Westlaw legal databases. The search process was recorded daily in a research protocol. Important features of the law were identified based on background research and discussion with a content expert and the coding form was created. Each record was coded by two legal researchers; 20% of the records were redundantly coded, and re-coding was completed as necessary to maintain the quality of the data. Variables were selected for display on the policy surveillance portal.

We found significant variation in the law. As of January 1, 2014, 21 jurisdictions allow authorized adults to use medical marijuana. Variation exists among these jurisdictions: 19/21 classifies “HIV Positive” as a qualifying medical condition, 18/21 allows qualified minors to use medical marijuana, 15/21 prohibits its use in or around schools (pre-K-12), and 13/21 limits possession to less than 3oz.  As this area of law develops, ongoing policy surveillance and dissemination of data is necessary to provide the quantitative information needed for setting priorities and tracking emerging trends for researchers, policymakers and the public.