Panel 2. "What Would Be the Unintended Consequences of Legalization?"

Itai Danovitch, M.D., Director, Addiction Psychiatry Clinical Services, Associate Director, Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center presented "Sorting Through the Data: What Do the Addiction Studies Really Tell Us?" Michael Vitiello, Distinguished Professor and Scholar, Pacific McGeorge presented "Why the Initiative Process Was the Wrong Way to Go: Lessons We Should Have Learned from Proposition 21."

In 2011, 15 states had enacted laws legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder signaled that the Obama administration would take a softer approach to medical marijuana dispensaries than did the Bush administration. Encouraged by those developments, proponents of legalization have advanced legislation in the California legislature. They also qualified an initiative for the 2010 ballot but, the measure failed badly. Proponents of legalization have vowed to regroup and continue efforts to reform the law. Efforts continue in Oakland to expand the medical marijuana industry. For example, advocates associated with "Oaksterdam" University propose factory-styled growing facilities. They are moving forward despite the commitment of state and federal law enforcement agencies to crack down on the illegal marijuana trade, even if it is carried on under the guise of medical marijuana. These examples suggest the conflicting state and federal laws and tension between legitimate medical marijuana providers and those interested in a cover for illegal drug trafficking.

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