Public policies regulating alcohol and tobacco - two substances that are objectively more harmful than marijuana - have proven to be far more effective at reducing teens' access. Jay Evensen implies that regulating the adult consumption of marijuana will lead to an uptick in adolescents' access and use of the substance ("Marijuana acceptance will lead to social costs," Aug. 21). He writes: Legalization advocates "would prohibit use by anyone under 21, naively thinking legalization for adults would not trickle down to teenagers."

Evensen presumes that criminalization of cannabis will somehow prevent pot from trickling down into the hands of young people. However, America's nearly 100-year experience with marijuana prohibition demonstrates that this presumption to be incorrect.

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PROVO -- City mayors and a county commissioner were recently warned of the impacts the cities and county may have if recreational marijuana was ever made legal in Utah.

On Thursday night at a meeting of the Utah County Council of Governments, a monthly meeting of county and city leaders, the county's Department of Drug and Alcohol Prevention and Treatment made a brief presentation informing the leaders of what has happened in cities and states that have already moved forward with legalizing pot.

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To paraphrase a recent editorial in the New York Times, "it took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, a time in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished, and it has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana."

Effective July 1, "Charlee's Law" went into effect, and Utah joined a number of other states that are re-examining their stand on the use of marijuana -- in one form or another. Make no mistake; House Bill 105 does not legalize the use of marijuana either recreationally or medicinally. It does allows certain patients with severe epilepsy to be prescribed a marijuana extract that is low in the high-inducing chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, but full of cannabidiol, or CBD -- a chemical that many say is unmatched when it comes to conquering seizures but stops short of getting users stoned. It also allows for the cultivation of hemp by institutions of higher learning, under the Department of Agriculture, for research purposes only.

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Ask experts what parents do wrong when it comes to preventing children from using drugs and alcohol, and many share this image: A parent comes home from a tough day at work and announces he or she needs a drink. Or there's a promotion -- great cause for celebration - -- and the wine bottle comes out.

Parents who use alcohol to celebrate, to wind down after a tough day or to rev up to socialize set children up to use alcohol and drugs. Few things have power to derail young lives as thoroughly as substance abuse, but parents are often oblivious to the signs -- and to the messages they send their children that may encourage use, experts told the Deseret News.

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Marijuana has now been legalized or decriminalized in 17 states and the District of Columbia, with Maryland joining the list just last week. Not to harsh anyone's mellow, but it may be an appropriate time (and day) to bring back another useful verb to associate with marijuana use: stigmatize.

The drive toward legitimization will be hard to stop. Most Americans favor it, and ballot measures to loosen rules on marijuana use could come to a vote this year in at least five states. Twenty-one states already allow marijuana for medical use.

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Let it be clear at the outset: I am definitely not an advocate for recreational psychoactive drugs! But I've never been enamored with staying uninformed on the issue either. So with that caveat, and with two countries now experimenting a little with legalization of such drugs, let's summarize a bit.

It should be well-known that the states of Colorado and Washington have recently legalized certain broad uses of recreational marijuana and are still working out the fine details of how to control the use thereof. Uruguay has thrown the doors wide open for marijuana. And New Zealand has now formalized legislation for all new psychoactive drugs, while still banning the ones that have heretofore been internationally illegal.

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Salt Lake City (AP) - Parents of Utah children with severe epilepsy are cheering a new state law that allows them to obtain a marijuana extract they say helps with seizures, but getting it involves navigating a thorny set of state and federal laws.

Utah's Republican Gov. Gary Herbert has already approved the law and held a signing ceremony for about 50 parents and children at the state Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.

The new law doesn't allow medical marijuana production in Utah but allows families meeting certain restrictions to obtain the extract from other states.

Similar legislation is pending in at least one other state. The marijuana extract, which some believe helps with a severe form of epilepsy, is produced in Colorado and is designed not to produce a high.

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Ceremonial Signing - Logistics Are Months From Being Worked Out; University of Utah Hopes to Study Effectiveness of Cannabis Treatments.

Utah's hemp supplement bill, better known as "Charlee's Law," is a technical piece of legislation, packed with a lot of "legalese," said sponsor Rep. Gage Froerer at the governor's ceremonial signing of the law on Tuesday.

But it's a symbol of compassion for parents who have exhausted all medical remedies for their children, and a promise of hope for a better future, he said.

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Medical Marijuana) Utah Families With Children Who Suffer From Intractable Epilepsy Are Eager for Relief.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed "Charlee's Law" on Thursday, giving Utahns with epilepsy trial access to a non-intoxicating, seizure-stopping cannabis oil.

The Republican signed HB105 in a private ceremony with the parents of the bill's namesake, Charlee Nelson, one of 50 Utah children on a Colorado waiting list for nonintoxicating cannabis oil. The 6-year-old West Jordan girl, died last weekend, days after being honored by the Legislature.

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The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused. Marijuana prohibition doesn't make the plant any safer, in fact prohibition opens up a gateway to hard drugs by granting a monopoly on marijuana distribution to drug cartels that also sell meth, cocaine and heroin. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success.

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If educated adults do not speak out about the real hazards, lives could be lost. And if Washington continues to stand idly by as the falsehoods persist, it will be increasingly difficult to stop the momentum toward public acceptance.

If educated adults do not speak out about the real hazards, lives could be lost. And if Washington continues to stand idly by as the falsehoods persist, it will be increasingly difficult to stop the momentum toward public acceptance. Smoking marijuana alters perceptions, impairs coordination, makes it difficult to think and solve problems and inhibits the brain's ability to learn and remember. It leads to respiratory problems similar to those caused by smoking tobacco, increases the risk of heart attack and can lead to mental illness. And just like tobacco, it is addictive.

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A jury Friday found a Utah man guilty of child abuse homicide in the death of a teenage baby sitter who prosecutors say died after the man gave her a lethal dose of drugs during a night of drugs and sex that also included the man's wife.

The eight jurors reached their verdict about two hours after they were given the case. Eric Millerberg, 38, was also found guilty of unlawful sexual contact with a minor, obstruction of justice and desecration of a dead body in the 2011 death of Alexis Rasmussen, 16.

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Settlement - an Attorney Says the Woman Was Not Able to Continue Living There.

Salt Lake City will pay $75,000 to the then-76-year-old woman whose door police rammed open during a mistaken drug raid in 2012.

The intended house was next door. The homeowner signed the settlement Nov. 25, 2013. The Tribune obtained a copy this month through a records request.

The settlement ends all of the homeowner's claims against the city. The attorney for the homeowner, Stephen Clark, said his client has not pursued a claim against the Drug Enforcement Administration, which had an agent present during the raid but was not implicated in the error.

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Marijuana >> Drug Policy Expert Says Opening Borders to Cannabis Oil a Bad Idea.

An outspoken opponent of legalizing marijuana visited Utah on Friday to urge lawmakers to put the brakes on a bill that would give epileptic children access to nonintoxicating cannabis oils.

"These parents are not part of the marijuana movement .They are very good parents in a desperate situation. My heart goes out to them," said Kevin Sabet, director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida and co-founder of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana).

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This injustice is worthy of clemency.

We didn't think Rocky Anderson and Jake Garn could agree on mom and apple pie, let alone pardoning a convicted felon sent to prison on drug and gun charges.

But there it is, both of their signatures on a letter to President Obama asking that Weldon Angelos' 55-year sentence be commuted. The letter is not the first effort to free Angelos, who has been in federal prison since 2004 after he was convicted in federal court in Utah for selling $350 worth of marijuana while in possession of a firearm. Because of federal mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines, the judge had no choice but to put a man in his early 20s with no prior adult record in prison until he was a senior citizen.

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Health) Utahn Moves to Colorado for Treatment Amid Push to Approve Use of Extract Here.

Brian Scott endured six grueling months of chemo-therapy in 2012 only to see his acute myeloid leukemia, a fast-growing cancer of the blood, return.

The St. George man was admitted this summer to Primary Children's Medical Center for a second, more intensive infusion of toxic chemicals in preparation for a stem cell transplant. This time, the treatments nearly killed him.

The 225-pound fullback, who carried the Hurricane Tigers to their first state championship, captured three state wrestling crowns and won a Southern Utah University football scholarship, called it quits on chemo. Brian, now 20, moved to Colorado this summer for an alternative treatment: medical marijuana.

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It is obvious that Utahns should be allowed access to a marijuana-derived medicine to limit epileptic seizures. One need only hear the stories about heroic parents to know this is not about dodging drug laws.

That is not to say the science has been proven. It's simply that the science should be allowed to go forward, including in Utah. While some of the medical marijuana industry may indeed be a smokescreen for access to recreational pot, it is impossible to dismiss the real research that has produced promising results. This past weekend Salt Lake Tribune reporter Kirsten Stewart detailed results on children in Colorado whose seizures have not been controlled by more widely prescribed pharmaceuticals. And while there is evidence of success in many young patients, there has been no evidence of harm.

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Since 1996 Californians have been able to legally possess cannabis (marijuana) for medical purposes deemed necessary by a licensed doctor. Seventeen years later, 21 states including Arizona, Oregon, Colorado and Montana have passed similar laws.

Utah is behind the curve. Medical cannabis has helped people with many different illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer's and many others.

Medical marijuana isn't just helping adults. A report in The Huffington Post by Andrea Rael states that, "parents calling themselves marijuana 'refugees' are heading to Colorado ... for their children who suffer from epilepsy." ("Medical Marijuana Treatment Of Pediatric Epilepsy Attracts More Parents To Colorado," Oct. 21)

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Treatment - a Strain of Medical Marijuana Low in THC Has Stopped Seizures in Children With Severe Epilepsy.

Every week a tutor comes to April Sintz's home to teach 7-year-old Isaac his letters. Developmentally delayed due to a rare seizure disorder, he is able to grasp the shapes and sounds but soon forgets them.

"It's one step forward and two steps back," said Sintz, who hasn't lost hope that Isaac will one day read. Nor has she given up her pursuit of an "herbal" treatment - available only from a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado - that has worked miracles for some children with severe, intractable forms of epilepsy.

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New Program Aims to Help Prevent Drug Users From Spreading Disease

For decades, the message about drugs has been to just say no. But some advocates are taking the approach that people make bad choices, and when they do, there's often no one to tell them the safest way to do something wrong, like shooting heroin or crack.

Zach Baker, head of Salt Lake Community College's Students for Sensible Drug Policy, is preparing to launch the Harm Reduction Project, an organization that, besides offering literature to addicts on healthier ways to get high, will also serve as the state's first-ever clean-needle-distribution program. While some of Baker's literature, like Getting Off Right: A Safety Manual for Injection Users, will likely be criticized for encouraging bad behavior, Baker says the reality is that addicts who don't share needles don't spread disease and therefore are less of a medical burden to the state.

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