The Justice Department’s decision not to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana comes as a relief to those who are legally using the drug. Taxpayers should also be relieved that the feds are finding better ways to spend their time and our money.

Polls continually show strong support for using marijuana to reduce chronic pain and nausea associated with cancer and other illnesses. While California was the first state to make medical marijuana use legal in 1996, thirteen other states currently allow some use of the drug to treat illnesses.

Much of the resistance in allowing marijuana use for medical treatment or for lowering the penalties for its use is based on erroneous assumptions. One of the more prevalent claims is that marijuana serves as a gateway drug.

A 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that while more than 100 million Americans have tried marijuana, only 14 million are estimated to be “past-month” users. The number of “past-month users of cocaine are estimated to be 2 million while there are an estimated 153,000 “past-month users of heroin.

Numerous studies including the World Health Organization’s investigation into the gateway effect of marijuana have concluded that the theory that marijuana use by adolescents leads to heroin use is unfounded.

In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana and this usually occurs before they are of legal age. A study in JAMA found that early regular use of tobacco and alcohol emerged as the 2 factors most consistently associated with later illicit drug use and abuse/dependence.

The National Survey on Drug Use found that illegal drug use was nearly 9 times higher among youths aged 12 to 17 who smoked cigarettes in the past month than it was among students who did not smoke in the past month. The marijuana usage rates reported for youth who had consumed 5 or more drinks on the same occasion on 5 or more days in the past 30 days was 12 times higher than the rate among nondrinkers.

Other studies have concluded that general behavioral problems account for most illicit drug use. The neighborhood environment and low parental supervision are also prime factors that contribute to drug use.

It seems clear that federal and state resources spent on preventing behavior problems, improving neighborhoods, and educating adolescents about the negative affects of tobacco and alcohol use would be a much better use of our tax dollars than criminalizing marijuana use.