Marijuana Addiction
 |
 |
 |
People Seeking Treatment For Marijuana Addiction More Than Doubled In California
Angelic medicine, or the devil on your shoulder?
Marijuana might be medicine in California, but an alarming number of pot "patients" have ended up looking for the antidote to marijuana addiction.
According to a recently released U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report (PDF), the the number of people seeking treatment for dependence on bud has more than doubled in the years 1998 to 2008, from 52 per 100,000 people in '98 to 113 per 100,00 people in '08.
This rise, of course, correlates with the availability of medical pot. In fact ...
Nationwide, as 14 states have legalized medical marijuana, the "treatment rate" for those seeking help for pot abuse rose 31 percent over the ten-year span.
Pot ranked as the second most-popular drug people sought treatment for. The number one substance? You guessed it, alcohol. Except in California, where meth outranked hooch (and pot).
So there you have it. Marijuana. America's drug. (Besides alcohol).