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DON'T FALL FOR THE LIES FROM BIG MARIJUANA

Big Business, Not Public Safety, Is the Goal

In Colorado, Teen Pot Use Has Increased

Only a Fraction of Prisoners Convicted for Possession

In response to the column, "Stop waste of money, lives in criminalizing pot," let me say that I agree with Sen.  Perry B.  Clark on one point: America is being bamboozled.

We are being bamboozled by Big Marijuana.

For several years now, we have witnessed a highly financed, deceptive campaign to legalize marijuana.  It started with the premise that marijuana is medicine.  Marijuana may contain medical components, but so does opium.  We don't smoke opium to get the pain-killing effects of morphine.  How could you dose smoked marijuana?

While it is entirely possible that the marijuana plant does contain elements that would be useful in treating specific disorders, there needs to be research and a process of approval like all potentially helpful medicines.  The Food and Drug Administration performs this procedure daily.  Let's give that a shot before we can get serious about marijuana as medicine.

Big Marijuana has lied for years in stating that the prisons are filled with people arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

With the current opiate addiction crisis in Kentucky and other states, law enforcement is too busy to bother with casual marijuana users.  A survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that 0.7 percent of all state inmates were behind bars for marijuana possession only ( with many pleading down from more serious crimes ).

In total, one-tenth of one percent ( 0.1 percent ) of all state prisoners in the U.S.  were marijuana-possession offenders with no prior sentences, according to a 1999 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Colorado's passage of a responsible adult marijuana-use law has also resulted in other issues.

A report by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area compared studies of the two-year average of marijuana use during full legalization ( 2013-14 ) to the two-year average just prior to legalization ( 2011-12 ).

The latest results show Colorado youth, aged 12 to 17 years old, ranked No.  1 in the nation for past month marijuana use, up from No.  4.  Their usage was 74 percent higher than the national average.  College-aged adults, 18 to 25, increased 17 percent.  This was 62 percent higher than the national average.

Legalization is about one thing and one thing only: Making a small number of business people very rich.  There is indeed some bamboozling going on.  Kentuckians shouldn't fall for legalizing marijuana.

At issue: Dec.  15 commentary by state Sen.  Perry B.  Clark, "Stop waste of money, lives in criminalizing pot"