"Drug harms in the UK: a multi-criteria decision analysis", by David Nutt, Leslie King and Lawrence Phillips, on behalf of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. The Lancet.

More facts.......

• $51,000,000,000 is spent annually on the War on Drugs
• 757,969 people were arrested in 2011 for marijuana violations, and 663,032 (86%) of these arrest were for possession ONLY!
• Currently, 18 states + the District of Columbia allow the use of Medical Marijuana
• 200,000+ students have lost their federal financial aid and eligibility because of possession convictions
• Most marijuana users never use any other illicit drugs, and for the majority of people it is a terminus rather than a "so called" gateway drug
• Claims about increased marijuana potency are vastly overstated
• Marijuana has NOT been shown to cause mental illness
• Marijuana use has not been shown to increase cancer risk
• Marijuana has proven helpful in treating a wide variety of medical issues
• Marijuana has NOT been shown to cause long term cognitive impairment

*Information retrieved 12/26/12 from The Drug Policy Alliance @ www.dpa.org.  For more information, please visit DPA.org