Episode #1: On Medical Cannabis Legislation with David Bradford

If you google marijuana or cannabis, a massive amount of information, academic and news articles will flood the screen. Should marijuana be legalized or not? What are the positive or negative impacts of using medical cannabis? What are the ethical and legal considerations that inform decision making on legalizing medical cannabis? The pros and the cons occupy most of the debates in social media as well as the academic sphere. In this podcast Dr. W. David Bradford, Busbee Chair in Public Policy at the University of Georgia, engages in an hour-long conversation with the host, trying to disentangle the medical cannabis debacle. It offers an evidence based account of its historical path in US policy and politics, accompanied by empirical evidence in relation to its position in the realm of medication and drugs as well as economic implications of legal use of medical cannabis. Using data from his own recent research Dr. Bradford analyzes the costs and savings that would occur if medical cannabis would be legalized, talking more in depth about Medicaid and Medicare.