November 14th, 2011

As California NORML estimates, there are between 750,000 and 1,125,000 medical marijuana patients in the state protected from arrest for possession, sale, and cultivation. This represents roughly 25% to 37.5% of the estimated 3,026,000 annual cannabis consumers in California aged 18 and older, according to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use & Health (the most recent state numbers available).

Another way to look at it? Even as over one in four California pot smokers became “legal”, more than twice as many were being arrested for it.