Pubdate: Sun, 09 Feb 2014
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2014 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Derek Moore

CIGARETTES ARE OUT; MARIJUANA'S IN

For everyone who lived through the era of Reefer Madness and the
Marlboro Man, these are strange days indeed.

Cigarettes used to be cool. Now, they prompt unfiltered scorn. But the
devil's weed? It's high times for that, man.

Who could have predicted that CVS, the nation's largest drug-store
chain, will stop selling tobacco products at its stores, including
three in Santa Rosa, later this year?

Or that thousands would gather at the Sonoma County Fairgounds in
December to smoke weed in full view of the cops for the Emerald Cup
cannabis competition?

"Tobacco is on the way out and cannabis is on the way in," said Asa
Shaeffer, chief executive officer of the Sonoma County Collective, a
home-delivery-only dispensary headquartered in Santa Rosa.

Cigarettes are becoming harder to find and more expensive, while
ever-expanding rules restrict where they can be smoked, a trend that
began decades ago with bans on planes and widened, in California at
least, to take in restaurants, parks and apartment complexes.

In Sonoma County, smoking is outlawed in multi-unit housing in
unincorporated areas, as well as on all county-owned property and
certain outdoor areas. Several cities have similar
restrictions.

But while marijuana remains illegal to most Californians who don't
have a prescription for its medical use, Colorado and Washington this
year toppled that makeshift legal barrier, allowing the sale of
marijuana for recreational use. In California, legalization proponents
are gathering signatures for no fewer than five ballot measures in
November.

National surveys show the opposing trends clearly: Cigarette smoking
has been on one prolonged slide over the past 50 years, while
marijuana use is on the rise.

Debate about the shift still is charged in medical circles, with
health officials especially concerned over the assumptions made by
youth about the supposedly more benign impacts of marijuana.

In other venues, however, the question appears to be settled.

In Sebastopol, the city's newly appointed mayor is the first in the
nation with a pot dispensary connection.

Mayor Robert Jacob, executive director of the marijuana dispensary
Peace in Medicine, declined an interview this week. But his assistant
issued a statement in which Jacob extolled the virtues of marijuana,
saying it has not caused a single death in 5,000 years, dating back to
the "Chinese medical compendium."

"Not all smoke is created equal," the mayor said.

But critics warn that by dropping a smoke for a toke, the nation is
simply switching from one bad habit to another.

"It's a surreal atmosphere," said Michael McCracken, who counsels
Sebastopol teenagers about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

It's been apparent for some time, particularly on the North Coast,
that tobacco and pot have been staging a role reversal.

Sitting outside an IHOP restaurant on Fourth Street in Santa Rosa on
Wednesday, Greg Pressley, who described himself as homeless, said
people view his cigarette habit as "disgusting." But if he lights up a
joint?

"That's OK," he said.

His friend, a man who gave his name as Irish, said when he walks in
downtown Santa Rosa, he's more apt these days to get a whiff of
marijuana smoke than of tobacco.

Hollywood has taken notice of the trend. The cigarette smoking on "Mad
Men" is as retro as Don Draper pounding cocktails in between ad
meetings. A show like "Weeds," on the other hand, may reflect the
growing tolerance for marijuana in many parts of the country.

Darcy Fracolli, a journalism student at Santa Rosa Junior College,
said her generation has a "very lax attitude toward pot that they
don't necessarily share toward (cigarette) smoking because the health
effects of smoking are so incredibly worse than smoking weed."

Even President Barack Obama came down on the side of cannabis,
confiding last month in a New Yorker article that he smoked pot as a
kid and that he views it as being no more dangerous than alcohol.

In 1965, 42 percent of American adults smoked cigarettes. In 2012,
that number had fallen to 18 percent, according to the U.S. Surgeon
General.

Similar trends are seen in American youth. In 1996, 49 percent of
eighth-graders said they had tried cigarettes, but by 2013, only 15
percent said they had done so, according to an annual survey of
teenagers conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA.

By contrast, nearly 23 percent of high school seniors in 2012 reported
having smoked marijuana in the month prior to the survey, with 6.5
percent saying they used it on a daily basis.

"We're failing our students in obscuring the real truth and facts
about underage drug use in general, and marijuana use specifically,"
said McCracken, the Project Success coordinator at Analy High School
and student club adviser for the One-4-One program.

He said kids can easily obtain marijuana, often through a friend or
family member who has a prescription for it. That's supported by the
NIDA study, which found that 34 percent of marijuana-using high school
seniors reported getting pot in that manner.

McCracken cited events such as the Emerald Cup in Santa Rosa as
confusing kids, some of whom, he said, could become dependent on pot
or suffer serious health consequences from using it.

"You have marijuana being billed universally as a healing agent. We
are uninformed about that," he said.

But Tim Blake, who co-produced the cannabis competition, which drew an
estimated 9,000 people to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds over two days,
said the event doesn't promote marijuana smoking in children, except
for those who are ill and doing so under their parents' or a doctor's
recommendation.

"I have children and grandchildren. I don't want them smoking cannabis
or drinking alcohol at an early age," he said.

He said kids always have experimented with drugs and alcohol, and that
when it comes to cannabis, the best way of dealing with that reality
would be to legalize its use and bring it out in the open.

But how to talk about marijuana is a hotly debated issue, whereas the
overwhelming consensus with tobacco is that consuming it can cause
serious illness and lead to premature death. The latest surgeon
general's report on the health effects of smoking - released last
month to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the 1964 report -
stated that smoking causes more diseases than previously reported,
including liver and colorectal cancers, and that it is responsible for
killing 480,000 Americans annually.

Health officials say marijuana use carries its own risks. The American
Lung Association claims there are 33 cancer-causing chemicals
contained in marijuana, and that pot smoke deposits tar into the
lungs. It also reportedly elevates a person's heart rate and can be
detrimental to people who are prone to psychological problems.

The marijuana "lobby" has effectively promoted pot as a healthy
product in an effort to legalize its use, said Brian Vaughn, director
of the Health Policy, Planning and Evaluation division of the Sonoma
County Department of Health Services. But he said the health risks
associated with cannabis are only now becoming better understood.

Vaughn said marijuana smoking is where tobacco was 30 to 40 years ago,
"in terms of society viewing it as having negative health
consequences."

All of this overlooks the exploding popularity of e-cigarettes, which
are opening up a whole new chapter in the evolution of smoking.

Where does it all end?

McCracken, the youth health counselor, predicted that Big Tobacco,
spotting the trends, will begin moving into the cannabis market.

"You think they're going to leave that on the table?" he
said.

Shaeffer fears that big producers will outsource marijuana cultivation
to other countries. "But I think there will be room for the
connoisseur," he said.

In California, cannabis advocates are gathering signatures for one
November ballot measure that would legalize recreational pot use for
adults 21 and over. It would also strengthen existing medical
marijuana laws and legalize hemp production.

Blake said plans are being finalized to bring the Emerald Cup back to
Santa Rosa in December. He said the event "teaches people how to grow
organic, outdoor, sustainable medicine."

Santa Rosa cardiologist Sanjay Dhar's preference is that people not
smoke anything at all.

He supports the limited use of marijuana for medical reasons. But he
said more long-term studies need to be done before he's convinced
cannabis is the panacea its most ardent advocates make it out to be.

"It's not like chewing on a carrot," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt