Pubdate: Sun, 05 Jan 2014
Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
Copyright: 2014 Washington Post
Contact:  http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333
Author: Ruth Marcus
Note: She is a columnist for the Washington Post

SMOKE OBSCURES DANGERS

Legalizing Pot Is a Bad Idea, Primarily for What It Will Do to Kids.

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.

Recreational marijuana sales are underway in Colorado, attracting a 
new type of tourism to the state. Govbeat's Reid Wilson breaks down 
four things pot tourists should know about the new laws.

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 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; 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.

"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."

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.

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: Jay Bergstrom