Pubdate: Sun, 05 Feb 2012
Source: Aspen Times, The  (CO)
Copyright: 2012 Aspen Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/zKpMPhQ7
Website: http://www.aspentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3784
Author: Rebecca Jones

VALLEY TEENS HAVE EASY ACCESS TO MARIJUANA

RFSD saw 61 drug-related incidents in '09-10 school year

Editor's note: The following article is part of a collaborative 
effort by HealthPolicySolutions.org, Education News Colorado and 
I-News Network that focuses on medical marijuana dispensaries and the 
use of marijuana in schools. The article below addresses the impact 
in the Roaring Fork Valley. For complete coverage, visit 
www.HealthPolicySolutions.org.

CARBONDALE -- If a friend hadn't turned him over to cops in November, 
15-year-old Charles most likely still would be dealing medical marijuana.

As it is, the Roaring Fork High School sophomore has just completed a 
stint in juvenile detention, is back in school and is eager to get 
his life back on track. He's hoping to join the military after high 
school, and he knows a drug conviction could scuttle those plans.

"But the DA worked out a deal where as long as I don't get in trouble 
for the next six to eight months, I'll be fine," he said. "I'll be 
allowed to go in the military."

Much has changed for the one-time honor student, who agreed to be 
interviewed on the condition that his last name is not used.

A year ago, he'd never smoked pot. But then came the night of the 
party. Someone offered him a joint and, when he didn't know what to 
do with it, showed him. "I took a hit," he said. "I felt the high. I 
wasn't in love with the feeling. But I liked it."

A week later, the older brother of a friend made Charles an offer.

"He told me 'Hey, if you're willing to sell for me, I'll give you 
money,'" Charles said. "I go 'All right.' So he'd go down to the 
dispensary once or twice a week and get his marijuana, then give it 
to me, and I would distribute it."

The brother, who is in his 40s, had sold marijuana for decades, he 
said, but began selling medical marijuana exclusively after obtaining 
a state-issued registry card for back pain.

"They're really easy to get them around here," Charles said of the 
cards. "You can get them for headaches."

Far from the Front Range population centers, Colorado's resort 
communities are dealing with their own medical marijuana issues.

The number of drug-related incidents in the 5,000-student Roaring 
Fork School District, which includes Glenwood Springs, Basalt and 
Carbondale, spiked at 61 during the 2009-10 school year, up from 11 
the year before. Last year, drug incidents were down to 36.

Other indicators of drug usage have not trended downward.

In 2010-11, the number of teens with marijuana charges referred to 
Youth Zone, a diversion system for young offenders, was up 58 percent 
from the year before, said Lori Mueller, program director.

"It could be that judges just decided to send more kids to us," she 
said. "It could be that police officers are more focused on stopping 
the kids smoking marijuana. I don't want to assume that the only 
reason is because more kids than ever are smoking pot."

But whatever the reason, Mueller sees teens' attitudes toward 
marijuana changing rapidly.

"Marijuana is no big deal to them," she said. "And it's very hard to 
work with kids who truly believe -- or whose parents believe -- that 
marijuana is medicine. If it's medicine, how can it be wrong? When 
they see a medical marijuana shop on every other block, and they have 
friends or parents of friends who have medical marijuana cards, it 
doesn't feel to them like there's anything to worry or be nervous about."

Based on what referred teens tell her, she said, marijuana seems to 
be everywhere in the Roaring Fork Valley. Getting it is as easy as 
helping yourself to the stash your parents or a friend's parents keep.

Or you could have called Charles, who was one of the teens referred 
to Mueller's program. He would get it for you.

"A kid could call me and say 'meet me here,' or would say 'I left 
some money under the front left tire of my dad's truck.' And I'd go 
and get the money and leave the marijuana," Charles said. "There were 
unlimited ways for me to distribute it."

Sometimes his clients asked for marijuana-infused candy or other 
edibles. But mostly, the smoke-able kind was what they wanted.

It's certainly the kind he wanted. And he smoked a lot.

"Kids are always looking for something to do, and smoking marijuana 
is something to do," he said. "It calms you down, and it's fun. Most 
kids won't refrain from it. But what that leads to -- I never got any 
of my homework done. None of it. I would rather be out with friends. 
I stopped really caring what people thought about me."

Charles' fling with marijuana didn't last long. He'd only been 
smoking -- and selling -- for about six months when he was busted. "A 
kid told on me," he said. "His parents found the marijuana and they 
asked where he got it, and he told them it was me. Three days later, 
I was getting in a car and police cars pulled up and said, 'Come with us.'"

He spent a month in juvenile detention, has been on home detention 
since before Christmas and went back to school Jan. 23. He's got a 
court date in February, but he's hopeful that his record will 
eventually be expunged if he can stay clean.

Charles says his days dealing marijuana are behind him -- "It's not 
worth spending a month in detention to make $20 a day" -- but smoking 
is another thing.

"I have court-appointed (drug tests) for now," he said. "But it's so 
widely available. After I finish those, I'll try not to use again 
because I don't want to go down that road, but I can't say for sure 
I'll be 100 percent clean."

Charles refused to identify his supplier to police and said he hasn't 
talked to him since his arrest. He said he didn't know of any other 
students dealing drugs for him.
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