"The concentration of medical marijuana patients varies between different regions of the state, being highest in northern California, which has by far the greatest number of patients' groups, dispensaries, and medical cannabis resources," California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer said, noting that local registration programs in Oakland and Mendocino County indicate that medical cannabis patients total approximately one percent of the local adult population.

Gieringer adds that a similar rise in the number of state-authorized medicinal marijuana patients is simultaneously occurring in Oregon. According to an Associated Press story published this week, more than 7,500 Oregonians possess state identification cards to use medicinal cannabis - up from 4,650 last July. (Unpublished reports estimate the current total is actually closer to 10,000.) Gieringer attributes this trend to a "growing acceptance of medical cannabis in the medical community," noting that "1,500 physicians are known to have recommended marijuana in California, and some five percent of all licensed physicians in Oregon."

For more information, please contact California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer at (415) 563-5858 or Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-5500.