Pubdate: Fri, 03 Jan 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Ruth Marcus

THIS WEED SHOULD BE YANKED OUT

Marijuana legalization may be the same-sex marriage of 2014 - a trend
that reveals itself in the course of the year as obvious and
inexorable. At the risk of exposing myself as the fuddy-duddy I seem
to have become, I hope not.

This is, I confess, not entirely logical and a tad hypocritical. At
the risk of exposing myself as not the total fuddy-duddy of my
children's dismissive imaginings, I have done my share of inhaling,
though back in the age of bell-bottoms and polyester.

Next time I'm in Colorado, I expect, I'll check out some Bubba Kush.
Why not? They used to warn about pot being a gateway drug, but the
only gateway I'm apt to be heading through at this stage is the one to
Lipitor.

Still, widespread legalization is a bad idea, if an inevitable
development. Washington state will be the next to light up, in a few
months. A measure is heading to the ballot in Alaska this year, along
with measures in Oregon and California. As with gambling - also a bad
idea, by the way - more states are certain to feel the peer pressure
for tax dollars and tourist revenue.

I'm not arguing that marijuana is riskier than other, already legal
substances, namely alcohol and tobacco. Indeed, pot is less addictive;
an occasional joint strikes me as no worse than an occasional drink.
If you had a choice of which of the three substances to ban, tobacco
would have to top the list. Unlike pot and alcohol, tobacco has no
socially redeeming value; used properly, it is a killer.

So the reason to single out marijuana is the simple fact of its
current (semi-)illegality. On balance, society will not be better off
with another legal mind-altering substance. In particular, our kids
will not be better off with another legal mind-altering substance.

As the American Medical Association concluded in recommending against
legalization in November, "Cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is
a public health concern." It added: "It is the most common illicit
drug involved in drugged driving, particularly in drivers under the
age of 21. Early cannabis use is related to later substance use disorders."

And this point, for me, is the most convincing: "Heavy cannabis use in
adolescence causes persistent impairments in neurocognitive
performance and IQ, and use is associated with increased rates of
anxiety, mood, and psychotic thought disorders."

A 2012 study of more than 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 38
found that "persistent cannabis use was associated with
neuropsychological decline broadly across domains of functioning, even
after controlling for years of education." Long-term users saw an
average decline of eight IQ points.

Once again, teenage toking was the problem. The decrease in IQ was
linked only to those with adolescent marijuana use, not those who
started in adulthood.

"Impairment was concentrated among adolescent-onset cannabis users,
with more persistent use associated with greater decline," the study
reported. For those who started as teens, stopping didn't fully
restore functioning. The results, the study concluded, "are suggestive
of a neurotoxic effect of cannabis on the adolescent brain."

Please do not argue that Colorado's law, like those proposed
elsewhere, bans sales to those under 21. Ha! I have teenage children.
The laws against underage drinking represent more challenge to
overcome than barrier to access.

And although alcohol seems to be the teen drug of choice among the
adolescents I know, the more widely available marijuana becomes, the
more minors will use it. If seniors in fraternities can legally buy
pot, more freshmen and sophomores will be smoking more of it.

And it's not as if the kids need encouragement. By the time they have
graduated from high school, nearly half have tried smoking pot; 16.5
percent of eighth-graders have. More alarming, the number who perceive
great risk from regular use has been plummeting, from 58 percent to 40
percent among 12th-graders, according to a study funded by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse.

And, that study says, for those who trumpet tight controls on sales to
minors, a third of 12th-graders who live in states with medical
marijuana and who have used the drug in the past year report that one
source is another person's prescription. Another 6 percent have their
own Rx.

Throwing people in jail for smoking pot is dumb and wasteful. Given
changing public attitudes - for the first time last year, a majority
of Americans supported legalization - Colorado and Washington are apt
to be the vanguard states, not the outliers.

If this doesn't make you nervous, you are smoking something. Maybe
even legally.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D