Pubdate: Sat, 09 Jan 2016
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2016 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Lisa Olson
Note: Lisa Olson is a veteran teacher and mother of five in Mesa. She 
is a medical marijuana card holder and an advocate for increasing 
education funding/support and seeking alternative solutions for 
chronic disease, such as the one she lives with, multiple sclerosis

LEGAL MARIJUANA WOULD BE GOOD FOR KIDS

In November, Arizona voters will likely have the opportunity to 
decide whether marijuana should be regulated like alcohol in the 
state. With this vote on the horizon, it is time to seriously 
consider the implications of regulating marijuana.

As a parent of five children and educator in Arizona for 25 years, my 
natural inclination is to wonder what impact it might have on young 
people in our state.

While opponents of the proposed initiative claim it will be 
disastrous, the evidence suggests otherwise.

In December, the National Institute on Drug Abuse released the 
results of the annual Monitoring the Future survey, one of the 
nation's most prominent measures of teen substance use and abuse. It 
found that rates of marijuana use among middle- and high-school 
students have remained unchanged for the past five years despite 
several states rolling back prohibition laws and a dramatic shift in 
public attitude toward legalization.

"All of those factors have led many to predict that there would be an 
increase in the pattern of use of marijuana among teenagers, and we 
are not seeing it,"  said NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow in an 
interview with Time.com.

The survey results also demonstrate how regulation can actually 
strengthen prevention efforts. It does so by conveying trends in the 
use of two other substances that are - or at least were - widely 
popular among teens: alcohol and cigarettes.

Teen use of these products plummeted following the launch of the "We 
Card"  program in the mid-1990s. This renewed commitment to restrict 
sales to minors, paired with heightened enforcement efforts by 
regulators, led to a considerable drop in the number of teens 
reporting it was "fairly easy or very easy"  to obtain them. As a 
result, teen alcohol and cigarette use are at record low levels, 
according to NIDA, and fewer teens are using cigarettes than marijuana.

Meanwhile, outside of the handful of states that have regulated the 
sale of marijuana, there is no enforcement mechanism to prevent 
marijuana sales to minors. Laws that prohibit sales across the board 
have failed to reduce use among teens, and for decades teens reported 
it is easier to purchase marijuana than it is to purchase alcohol. 
After all, underground marijuana dealers do not ask for ID and they 
do not have any particular incentive to sell only to adults.

If we want to prevent our state's young people from accessing 
marijuana, our state needs to start controlling marijuana. That is 
why I support the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Arizona.

Under the proposed law, authorities will know who is selling 
marijuana, where and when it is being sold, and, most importantly, to 
whom it is being sold. Sales will take place in licensed businesses 
that ask for ID and do not sell to minors for fear of losing their 
ability to sell to adults. As an added bonus, these sales will 
generate much-needed tax revenue for our state.

Colorado is on pace to see close to $1 billion in sales of medical 
and adult-use marijuana in 2015. This will generate more than $100 
million in tax revenue for the state and localities, including more 
than $30 million specifically dedicated to public-school construction.

Similarly, the proposed initiative in Arizona will enact a 15 percent 
tax on retail marijuana sales and direct much of the revenue to 
public schools and full-day kindergarten programs. According to the 
Grand Canyon Institute, a centrist think-tank, it will initially 
raise about $64 million per year for the state, including $51 million 
for K-12 education.

There are many good reasons to end marijuana prohibition and replace 
it with a regulated system. If you have considered those reasons and 
still say, "But what about the children?,"  I encourage you to take a 
closer look at the evidence. If you do, you'll find that it would be 
be good for them, too.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom