Pubdate: Sat, 08 Mar 2014
Source: Hutchinson News, The (KS)
Copyright: 2014 The Hutchinson News
Contact:  http://www.hutchnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1551
Author: John D. Montgomery

LEGAL OR NOT, DANGERS OF POT SHOULDN'T BE MINIMIZED

Let Colorado have legal pot. Kansas can sit back and watch how this 
experiment goes and wait for more science on the health and societal 
impact of marijuana use.

I attended a public awareness meeting about marijuana in Hutchinson 
on Tuesday night. Even though The Hutchinson News was a sponsor, I 
thought I might confirm my past support for legalizing pot. It must 
have been an effective program, as I walked away instead in support 
of the people who are fighting pot usage, especially at the youth 
level. I have too much respect for those people to marginalize pot. 
Downplaying the effects of pot is exactly why it is a problem with 
our youth and in our schools.

The case for legalizing pot has been that it isn't any worse than 
alcohol, which is legal, and law enforcement resources could be 
better directed to more serious drugs such as methamphetamine. Plus, 
taxing legal marijuana would provide a good tax revenue stream for 
government, just as similar taxes on alcohol and tobacco.

But no matter what you think about adult pot usage, we all should 
agree that it isn't something our children should be doing. 
Hutchinson High School students David Sotelo and Anna Kimmel 
testified to the "nonchalant" attitude toward marijuana in their 
school. Sotelo showed a video in which fellow students expressed as 
much and shared how easy the drug is to obtain in the school. 
Marijuana use at the high school level in Hutchinson is estimated at 
more than 30 percent. And I know from the stories from school told in 
my own home that pot is prevalent in Hutchinson public schools and 
little is done to control it. A baggie of weed found in a desk of a 
classroom, pot in the bathroom, students behind a campus building 
smoking pot during break: No wonder kids are immune to marijuana's presence.

One reason I've questioned the wisdom of continued criminalization of 
marijuana is the allocation of resources to minor pot possession when 
methamphetamine manufacture, sale and use is such a far more 
insidious problem. But seasoned prosecutor Tom Stanton explained 
that, contrary to popular belief, people convicted of simple 
possession of marijuana don't take up space in our prisons. And 
judging by the presence of law enforcement and prosecutors at the 
marijuana awareness meeting, they aren't ready to give up fighting it 
around here.

It's a gateway drug, they say, and one former drug abuser testified 
to that at the forum. It may be no more of a gateway to more 
addictive drugs than alcohol, but, as Reno County District Judge Joe 
McCarville said to me, if the best that can be said about marijuana 
is that it's no worse than alcohol, that's not good. We have a 
drinking age because we don't think alcohol is a wise choice for 
youth either. McCarville's is an opinion I respect. He's not only got 
the perspective of a judge but as a founder of the local drug court, 
an intensive treatment and rehabilitation program for drug addicts 
that provides an alternative to prison - a new approach that is 
working. Marijuana might not be any more dangerous than alcohol - 
though more study needs to be done on that - but that doesn't mean it 
is time to legalize pot. Prohibition was tried and failed with 
alcohol. We won't go back on alcohol. But we don't need to go down 
the legalization road with marijuana in Kansas.

And marijuana poses other complications that alcohol does not. Even 
if it were legal, driving while under the influence wouldn't be . But 
the marijuana chemical can't be detected by a breath test; it 
requires a blood test. The same would be true at a school event where 
administrators are monitoring students for being under the influence 
of alcohol or drugs.

Colorado is working through these and other issues. Let the Rocky 
Mountain State blaze the trail. The politics of legalizing pot - 
whether for medicinal or recreational use - wasn't the point of the 
Hutchinson forum. The focus was on youth, and the takeaway was that 
marijuana is not harmless and any impression to the contrary should 
not be left to our young population.

The message to our youth needs to be clear: Marijuana is dangerous. 
Alcohol is dangerous. They're both illegal for minors to use. It 
isn't healthy to use them.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom