The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience

Winner of the Donald W. Light Award for the Applied or Public Practice of Medical Sociology

Medical marijuana laws have spread across the U.S. to all but a handful of states. Yet, eighty years of social stigma and federal prohibition creates dilemmas for patients who participate in state programs.

The Medicalization of Marijuana takes the first comprehensive look at how patients negotiate incomplete medicalization and what their experiences reveal about our relationship with this controversi...