An article written by Paul Armentano this week details marijuana prohibition’s drug treatment gravy train. According to the most recent figures published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, 57 percent of persons referred to treatment for marijuana as their primary substance of abuse were referred there by the criminal justice system. Total drug treatment admissions from criminal justice referrals accounts for only 37 percent of overall drug treatment admissions. Primary marijuana treatment admissions were less likely than all admissions combined to be self-referred to treatment, with only 15 percent of marijuana treatment admissions as self-referred including referrals by friends and family. This percentage is less than half the number of self-referrals for alcohol and cocaine, and about one-quarter the number of self-referrals reported for heroin abuse. According to Armentano, given America’s current underfunded drug treatment resources and our inability to meet demand, it is shocking and shameful that so many drug treatment facilities are being used to warehouse minor marijuana offenders who have run afoul of the law. In 2007, almost 40 percent of the estimated 288,000 people who entered drug treatment for cannabis use hadn’t even used it in the 30 days previous to their admission with another 16 percent reporting they used marijuana fewer than three times in the month before admission to treatment, hardly pot addicts worthy of drug rehab. These statistics make it clear that it is not marijuana use that is driving these treatment admission rates, it is primarily cannabis prohibition driving them. Americans that are being busted for marijuana are being forced to choose between rehab or jail, a policy that has been a windfall for treatment clinics.