Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2017
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Pamela McColl
Page: 14

PROHIBITION WORKS

Re: Gordon Clark's June 23 column, Love your kids? Warn them about drugs.

In 1978, 10.7 per cent of U.S. high school students smoked cannabis
every day. Survey data shows that marijuana use peaked in 1979 and was
followed by a period of dramatic decline until 1992, when the rate of
high school students who smoked pot daily dropped below two per cent.

Between 1979 and 1991, a huge prevention campaign in North America
coincided with the dramatic decrease in drug use. Parents, teachers,
police, youth leaders, social workers, churches and the children
themselves all got involved. It worked. Users fell from 23 million to
14 million, cannabis and cocaine use halved and daily pot use dropped
by 75 per cent.

Anyone who doesn't believe that prohibition works either doesn't know,
or doesn't remember, the rise and fall of drug use in the 1980s, and
what it took to turn kids off the use of drugs.

Pamela McColl, Smart Approaches to Marijuana Canada, Vancouver
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MAP posted-by: Matt