Pubdate: Sat, 23 Apr 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Robert Shuman

MARIJUANA'S FOES TAKE CONFUSED APPROACH TO PROTECTING KIDS

I have worked for more than 40 years as a psychotherapist with 
several thousand teens and adults confronting a variety of personal, 
marital, and family challenges. I find the argument raised by those 
who oppose legalizing marijuana for adults - that it would "put our 
children at risk" - to be confusing and shortsighted ("Key players 
join forces against marijuana," Metro, April 14).

When kids want alcohol, they usually find some willing adult to buy 
it for them from a local liquor store. If teens want to use 
marijuana, on the other hand, that moves them toward somebody who has 
access to a wider range of more dangerous drugs. If it were 
legalized, I assume most kids would obtain it as they now get 
alcohol, and their contact with more dangerous drugs would be 
potentially limited.

Yes, I have seen kids who abused marijuana. But I have seen many more 
teens and adults who had difficulties with alcohol, cigarettes, 
drinks loaded with sugar and caffeine, prescription drugs, sex, video 
games, and cellphone use.

We know little of the long-term effects, on the brain and behavior of 
the developing child and adolescent, of pixelated screens, texting, 
sexting, Googling rather than thinking, gaming, one-click shopping, 
and enmeshment in the social media web. Yet relatively few people 
object to the proliferation of stores selling cellphones or their use 
by younger children.

The prohibition of legal adult marijuana has gone on far longer than 
that against alcohol, despite marijuana's far greater safety and the 
economic benefits it would provide to enhance education and combat 
opioid addiction.

Robert Shuman

Marblehead
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