"In 2003, an estimated $21 billion was spent on drug and alcohol addiction treatment. This represents 1.3 percent of all health care spending for that year."

"Only orally given THC and, to a lesser extent, nefazodone have shown promise [in treating marijuana dependence]. THC reduced craving and ratings of anxiety, feelings of misery, difficulty sleeping, and chills (Haney et al., 2004). In addition, participants could not distinguish active THC from placebo.

"Some 4.3 percent of Americans have been dependent on marijuana, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision(DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association,2000), at some time in their lives. Marijuana produces dependence less readily than most other illicit drugs. Some 9 percent of those who try marijuana develop dependence compared to, for example, 15 percent of people who try cocaine and 24 percent of those who try heroin.

"• Marijuana/hashish was reported as the primary substance of abuse by 15 percent of TEDS admissions aged 12 and older in 2014 [Table 1.1b].

Treatment Admissions for Marijuana in the US, 1992-2002, and Referrals from the Criminal Justice System: "A recent issue of The DASIS Report² examined marijuana treatment admissions between 1992 and 2002 and found that between these years [1992 and 2002] the rate of substance abuse treatment admissions reporting marijuana as their primary substance of abuse³ per 100,000 population increased 162 percent.

According to SAMHSA, "There was a net increase of 526 responding [substance abuse treatment] facilities between 2015 and 2016, to 14,399 facilities." (p. 11)

Federal spending on substance use disorder treatment and treatment research, as estimated by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (all figures final unless otherwise noted):

"A few key conclusions and discussion points regarding the state and future of HAT (heroin-assisted treatment) can be offered based on the above review of completed or ongoing studies.

"Eighty five percent of the BPG [Berkeley Patients Group] sample reported that cannabis has much less adverse side effects than their prescription medications. Additionally, the top two reasons listed by participants as reasons for substituting cannabis for one of the substances previously mentioned were less adverse side effects from cannabis (65%) and better symptom management from cannabis (57.4%).
"Conclusion

Drug Treatment Admissions and Incarceration Rates: "Increased admissions to drug treatment are associated with reduced incarceration rates. States with a higher drug treatment admission rate than the national average send, on average, 100 fewer people to prison per 100,000 in the population than states that have lower than average drug treatment admissions. Of the 20 states that admit the most people to treatment per 100,000, 19 had incarceration rates below the national average.