Pubdate: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2014 The Tribune Co. Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/submit/ Website: http://tbo.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446 Author: Jerome Stockfish, Tribune staff Section: Metro Page: 1 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/props.htm (Ballot Initiatives) TEENS AT CENTER OF POT DEBATE Both Sides On Amendment 2 Counter With Surveys, Data TAMPA - With voters set to determine the fate of medical marijuana in Florida this fall, attention is centering on a group that wasn't supposed to play much of a role in the debate: teenagers. The subject of adolescent smokers is something of a double-edged sword in the great pot debate as studies show that on the one hand the teenage brain, which is still developing dramatically, is considered to be particularly vulnerable to excessive marijuana use. Many experts say that abuse of marijuana during adolescence can have lifetime consequences in the ability to solve problems, for memory and for critical thinking in general. But on the other hand, there is little evidence that teenage marijuana use increases when medical or recreational pot is legalized; in fact, one study showed high school students' use of pot declined in Colorado after that state pioneered recreational use. On Nov. 4, voters will decide whether to join 23 states and the District of Columbia in approving comprehensive public medical marijuana programs via Amendment 2. Florida is one of 11 states that has approved a non-euphoric strain of cannabis in limited situations, but the November ballot would be for the real deal. The prospect worries a lot of people. And a lot of that worry is reflected in the imagery employed by the Don't Let Florida Go to Pot group, whose home page displays a photo of a youngster in a hoodie lighting a joint, or the Vote No on 2 campaign, whose Facebook page is headed "Let's Keep Our Children Safe" and includes photos of a stoned-looking girl and a young man lighting up. "The simple fact is this: If Amendment 2 is adopted, pot is going to be much more accessible, specifically for the teenage population, as they will be able to get a recommendation from a pot doc and legally obtain pot without parental consent," said Sarah Bascom, spokeswoman for Vote No on 2. "Studies that point to the dangers of pot smoking are numerous and scary, especially scary for parents when looking at the teenage population. If we legalize pot now, there could be untold consequences down the road, and legalization of pot is simply not a road that Florida should go down." That position is bolstered by a December 2013 study from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, which concluded that teens who smoked a lot of pot had abnormal changes in their brain structures related to working memory, which predicts weak academic performance and impaired everyday functioning, and did poorly on memory-related tasks. Researchers from the University of Montreal reviewed more than 120 studies on cannabis and the adolescent brain and concluded this population was particularly at risk of developing addictive behaviors and suffering other long-term negative effects. More of the same came from a University of Maryland study. Adolescence is a sensitive time for brain development, said Matthew J. Smith, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences who took part in the Northwestern study. "Our data suggests that marijuana abuse occurring during adolescence might contribute to abnormalities in the brain during adulthood that are directly related to poor memory," Smith said. "This relationship was observed after an extended period of abstinence from marijuana" - two and a half years, he said. Smith said researchers are careful to use the word "might" because their data is cross-sectional - a snapshot in time, rather than a longitudinal data gathered over several periods of time. "However, our data also suggest that an earlier age cannabis abuse begins, the more severe the cannabis-related abnormalities become, which supports a causal hypothesis for future studies," Smith said. In its literature, the No on 2 group cites what it calls a "teenager loophole" in the constitutional amendment, with no age limit or parental notification requirement, and youngsters able to obtain pot on the basis of school-related stress. That raises the question: If Floridians approve Amendment 2, will the state be enabling a new stoned, cognitively impaired generation? The response from academia is no. In a paper this year, the Journal of Adolescent Health reported that there was no statistically significant difference in adolescent marijuana use before and after legalization in states that had done so. Data released last month by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment indicated that marijuana use among high school students is actually declining in the first state to legalize recreational use. The state's Healthy Kids Colorado survey showed that 25 percent of high school students said they toked within the past month in 2009; that number fell to 20 percent last year. The number admitting to ever having used marijuana dropped from 45 percent in 2009 to 37 percent last year. Both of those numbers from 2013 are lower than the national average. "There is no compelling evidence that medical marijuana has any detrimental impact on teen or adolescent usage rates overall," said Ben Pollara, campaign manager for United for Care, the chief advocate for Amendment 2. "This is typical of the opposition to this amendment - it's trying to change the conversation from medical marijuana to something other than medical marijuana. The voters get that, but the opposition doesn't get that, so they're running this 1980s-1990s 'This is Your Brain on Drugs' campaign. "I don't think their message is getting through, and part of that is because their message has nothing to do with the issue at hand." As with any hotly debated issue, both sides have counter-arguments, counter-surveys and counter-data. No on 2's Bascom points to a National Institute on Drug Abuse report that demonstrates when the perceived threat of pot smoking is decreased the use of pot increases, and to numbers from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health that show medical marijuana states dominating the top of a ranking of past-month marijuana users aged 12 to 17. Even statewide polls on voters' thoughts on Amendment 2 are all over the place. A Quinnipiac University poll in May put support at 88 percent. Last week, a Bay News 9/Tampa Bay Times/UF Bob Graham survey registered support at 57 percent - not enough to clear the 60 percent threshold for constitutional amendments in Florida. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom