Los tribunales están obligando a usuarios de marihuana a recibir un tratamiento de drogas que seguramente no necesitan

En 2013, más de la mitad de los usuarios de marihuana que iniciaron tratamiento en los Estados Unidos fueron remitidos por los tribunales o por el sistema de justicia penal. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

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By Christopher Ingraham

Opponents of marijuana legalization often cite the "skyrocketing" number of people seeking treatment for marijuana addiction in their arguments. Project SAM, the nation's leading anti-legalization group, notes with some alarm that "data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that in 1993, marijuana comprised approximately 8 percent of ALL treatment admissions, but by 2009 that number had increased to 18 percent."

But new data out this month from the Department of Health and Human Services provides some important context behind those numbers. In 2013, more than half of marijuana users in treatment were sent there by the courts or the criminal justice system. That's more than the share of court-ordered referrals for any other drug, including far more deadly ones like alcohol and heroin.

Overall, fewer than 1 in 5 marijuana treatment seekers checked themselves in voluntarily. That too is a lower share than for any other drug.

Click here to read the full article.

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Thumbnail Flickr CC Michael Coghlan