Medical Marijuana Study.

So NABP makes a blurb about The study “Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Analgesic Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999-2010,”

Please note is that consumer use wasn't legalized in Washington and Colorado until 2012.  Medical marijuana may play a role? Yes, from a historical standpoint marijuana was in use in prior centuries in the US, but despite various lawsuits, even most Americans grew up only knowing that it was illegal.

The abstract mentions that three left coastal states of the lower 48 had medical marijuana before 1999. From then until 2010, 10 more states passed it. Authors assert that each year there was less opioid overdose deaths in states with marijuana access than without. 

So how does that reconcile with the fact that the very components of marijuana which reduce pain, are also associated with mental imbalance and a lack of cognitive thinking? (Source DrugStoreNews CE by medical marijuana expert).

The authors do not reconcile that point.

How about the fact that for almost everyone, an otherwise illegal substance, is legal if you're *really* sick and in pain. 

Thus, the authors say: more studies and time are needed.

Another aspect not always mentioned is that the younger generation wants it legal because they believe it is not as harmful as other illegal drugs. There is the belief among the young that they are invincible. Though also, let's not forget the impact that TV shows can have on one's belief's.
There's the fact that when alcohol was made illegal during prohibition and we had gangsters making money off its sale, and so libertarians like the now deceased Milton Friedman say "Well if we decriminalize it, maybe the drug traffickers will not be able to make a profit motive selling it illegally so lets try this social experiment."

What to do, what to do? Ah controversy....