Marijuana education needed for teens
With the marijuana legalization movement gaining momentum in recent years, the safety, legality and accessibility of marijuana have steadily come under debate. On April 1, The New York Times reported that due to a “legal snarl,” Colorado would be forced to refund its marijuana taxes to marijuana growers, users and the public. This move makes everyone vulnerable, especially teenagers.
Though marijuana has been legalized in some form by 23 states, no state permits the recreational use of marijuana by those under the age of 18. But as with other substances that are illegal for minors, age is not a factor in engaging in certain activities. Due to the age prohibition, countless teens are being arrested and even incarcerated for possessing “weed.” Throwing teens into jail for illegal possession does not benefit the community and not the prevent such “crimes.”
In January, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement explaining that it believes in the decriminalization of the usage and possession of marijuana, but does not support its legalization. Doctors and professionals themselves have decided to take a seat right on the fence; this contradictory statement struggles to further push or settle the debate.
Due to minimal research on the drug, no one can yet confirm the exact effects of marijuana and whether or not the drug is fully safe for its users. There has been little verified information on the negative effects of marijuana on the health of adults, but studies have shown that marijuana has the possibility to delay adolescent brain development. This makes it difficult to pinpoint whether or not marijuana should legalized and what types of consequences one should face if using this substance unauthorized.
Many worry that the legalization of marijuana will increase the accessibility and usage of the drug in teens, and fears have arisen that youth will be exposed to illegal substances at very early ages. With 23 states already on board to legalize the substance, there is no way to completely ban marijuana in the United States.
At this point, marijuana’s presence is only going to increase in the future if studies are not further expanded and performed to test the effects of the drug. With growing support for legality, officials and medical personnel need to spearhead a movement to educate young adults about this drug. Marijuana can be harmful to one’s health, and this is the message that should be spread.
Communities — especially those who have a high rate of illegal substance use — should teach people at an early age about the possible consequences associated with all types of drugs and alcohol. It will be up to each state at this point to put controls on the content of educational advertisements to viewers and to deter illegal usage by limiting accessibility or price. Years ago, television, radio and billboards glorified smoking as being sexy and indulgent only to discover years later how detrimental and dangerous smoking actually is. Commercials like those by the “Truth” campaign aim to show teens the not-so-pretty side of cigarette use; there are definitely ways to combat the glamorization of possibly harmful substances as recent commercials have proved.
When it comes down to it, though marijuana’s effects on adolescents are somewhat inconclusive, marijuana should not be accessible to teens; at the same time, teens should not face severe punishment for usage or possession of the drug.
It is very difficult to get approval of a study regarding cannabis in the U.S. unless it is designed to find harm. This is why over 90% of the thousands of studies funded by the NIH / NIDA were designed to find harm. Despite this only a handful of concerns where found. This in itself is a testament to its relative safety. Few substances when subject to this much scrutiny would show less harm, especially alcohol, tobacco and many pharmaceuticals.
“Overall, by comparison with other drugs used mainly for ‘recreational’ purposes, cannabis could be rated to be a relatively safe drug.”
Iversen L. Long-term effects of exposure to cannabis. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2005. Review.
The large majority of adverse effects regarding cannabis are associated with (not necessarily caused by) heavy, regular, long-term adolescent use. This is the type of use that a legalized and regulated approach can reduce.
Currently kids have nearly unfettered, regular access to cannabis in our unregulated market. Over a third of teens say it would take less than a few hours to buy cannabis according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. The federally funded Monitoring the Future Survey reports about 85% of high school seniors find marijuana “fairly easy to obtain”. Their figure has changed little since 1975, never dropping below 81% in three decades of national surveys.
It is regular use by teens that is the primary concern. Regular teen access will not increase with legalization. If there is any change, it will likely decrease as the main supply channels are moved above ground where they can be easily monitored and cannabis not purchased at will by teens as it is now. At the very least we would take the cannabis they are getting from the criminal drug dealer of unknown character, with unknown potency, unknown purity (it could be laced, contaminated, etc), who never ID’s, and put the supply in the hands of licensed, regulated retailers who are not going to try and also sell hard drugs, or even have access to hard drugs. We will also ensure that kids who happen to get caught in possession of cannabis, or worse, selling it to a friend, do not have their life ruined by the law intended to protect them.
The federal organization SAMHSA has shown that, despite greater acceptance, more lenient laws, and legalization for medical purposes, past year cannabis use by those aged 12 to 17 has dropped from 15.8% in 2002 to 13.4% in 2013. The perceived availability of cannabis has also dropped from 55% to 48.6% in this time. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown that medical marijuana laws have not led to increased teen usage [Choo et al. 2014; Lynne-Landsman et al. 2013; Harper et al. 2012; Anderson et al. 2012].
Teen cannabis usage dropped in Portugal when they decriminalized in 2001 [Hughes and Stevens. 2010]. The Netherlands have tolerated sales for years in ‘coffee shops’. As of 2011, both countries have lower overall past year usage rates, 3.6% and 5.4% respectively, than the U.S. which is 13.7% [WDR 2011]. Note that in the same time frame in which the war on drugs has been waging since the 1970’s, overall tobacco use has dropped from about 45% to 18%, without criminalizing millions of tobacco users, whereas overall cannabis use went up.
This peer-reviewed study has shown that lenient cannabis policies are not associated with elevated adolescent use:
“the data provide no evidence that strict marijuana laws in the United States provide protective effects compared to the similarly restrictive but less vigorously enforced laws in place in Canada, and the regulated access approach in the Netherlands. ”
Simons-Morton et al. Cross-national comparison of adolescent drinking and cannabis use in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. Int J Drug Policy. 2010.
Regardless, criminalizing adults for the possession of something that children should not have is not reasonable or consistent with our legal system.
SOURCES:
-Hughes C E and Stevens A. What Can We Learn From The Portuguese Decriminalization of Illicit Drugs?. Brit J Criminol. 2010.
-Choo et al. The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Legislation on Adolescent Marijuana Use. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2014.
-Lynne-Landsman et al. Effects of state medical marijuana laws on adolescent marijuana use. Am J Public Health. 2013.
-Harper et al. Do medical marijuana laws increase marijuana use? Replication study and extension. Ann Epidemiol. 2012.
-Anderson et al. Medical Marijuana Laws and Teen Marijuana Use. IZA 2012.
-World Drug Report 2011. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Colorado legalized recreational cannabis use in Dec 2012 (Jan 2014 for recreational sales). It has been legal medicinally for over a decade. They have not experienced the surge in teen use predicted by prohibitionists:
Past Month Colorado High School Cannabis Use
2009: 24.8%
2011: 22.0%
2013: 19.7%
[SOURCE: 2009 and 2012 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results – Colorado High School Survey Summary Table; 2013 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey Results – Colorado High School Summary Tables]
Past Month National High School Cannabis Use
2009: 20.8%
2011: 23.1%
2013: 23.4%
[SOURCE: CDC – Trends in the Prevalence of Marijuana, Cocaine, and Other Illegal Drug Use National YRBS: 1991— 2013]
Past Month Colorado Middle School Cannabis Use
2011: 6.0%
2013: 5.1%
[SOURCE:Overview Of The 2011 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey: Middle School; Healthy Kids Colorado Survey Middle School Overview of 2013 Data]
The prohibition of marijuana provides teens with 24/7 access. It simply must end.
If I were you and worried so much about “saving all of us” adults from ourselves, under the guise of protecting “The Children”, well then, I’d begin with the deadliest drug, which causes more broken homes, domestic violence, and traffic fatalities than all other drugs, combined, which is alcohol.
Yet alcohol remains perfectly legal, widely accepted, endlessly advertised, even glorified as an All American pastime.
Why doesn’t the much more prevalent, more widely abused, use of alcohol concern you much more than marijuana which is a relatively benign drug when compared to all other ones?
Protesting the legality of booze should be your number one priority if you are truly so concerned about “saving us all” from ourselves.
If you really want to protect families from a drug proven to destroy lives and families, then you should be up in arms, protesting the legality of booze.
Alcohol is the number one cause for traffic fatalities and domestic violence by a huge landslide.
Alcohol is also infused into literally a ton of deserts and fruity drinks that “The Children” find appealing.
Why doesn’t much more harmful yet perfectly legal use of alcohol concern you more than relatively benign marijuana? It should.
Regarding “The Children”,
Let’s not use “The Children” as an excuse to prohibit and criminalize adult use of a natural plant far less dangerous than perfectly legal alcohol because nobody condones child use, and this is about allowing adults only to choose marijuana.
It’s our responsibility as parents by to educate our children on drug use. It’s not the government’s job to force Draconian Marijuana Laws upon every adult citizen under the guise of protecting “The Children”.
What message are we sending our children when it is easier for them to obtain marijuana now with it being illegal than it is for them to buy alcohol?
It doesn’t take the intellect of a genius to understand that stores card kids for I.D. Thugs and gang members do not. They also push the real hard drugs on children. Stores do not.
Marijuana legalization will make it harder for children to obtain it.
What message does it send our children when the President of The United States himself alongside a long list of successful people openly admit regular pot use at one time or another in their lives?
While we tell our kids how it will ruin their futures, and then insure so, by allowing our government to to jail our children and give them permanent criminal records when they get caught with a little Marijuana. Especially, if they are the wrong skin color or from the “wrong neighborhood”. Which in turn, ruins their chances of employment for life.
The Prohibition of Marijuana is the wrong message to send our children while we glorify, advertise and promote the much more dangerous use of alcohol like it’s an all American pastime.
The worst thing about marijuana and our children is what happens to them when they get caught up in the criminal justice system due to it’s prohibition.
Protect “The Children” and Our Neighborhoods Through The Legalization and Regulation of Marijuana Nationwide!
It’s really interesting to see the prohibitionist “mind” at work. First Ms. Laczewski uses the tired old canard of “not enough research” to know. How tired and old is that particular red herring”? Well, I can’t
say for certain but I do know that the oldest reference to that excuse that I’ve found was published in Time Magazine in an article called “The A.M.A.: Marijuana Warning” which was published in the June 28, 1968 edition. You’ll need to be a subscriber to read that article.
http://content.time.COM/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841337,00.html
We’re pushing half a CENTURY of that tired old nag of a lame excuse. Exactly how many more decades are we supposed to give the epic failure of public policy credence and forcing our Country to suffer the consequences of this proven failure? But it’s a pretty darn good tactic. All the prohibitionists have to do is nothing to preserve the status quo.
Ms.Laczewski, with all due respect the only research that’s in short supply is credible research with the results that please the sycophants of prohibition. But it’s positively mind bending that you can argue “we
just don’t know” and then segue into the assertion that “the children” need to be warned about the dangers. It takes about 5 minutes inside my world for “the children” to realize that they’ve been lied to about cannabis. You’re just not going to be able to convince them with more lies. You simply can not insist your irrational fears into becoming reality. The result is even worse because once “the children” realize that they’ve been sold a bill of goods the credibility of the prohibitionists is shot. The next natural conclusion for the immature mind is to believe that they’ve also been sold a bill of goods in the case of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, or whatever popular substance on the governments naughty lists. Would it really be that hard for you people to try to be honest about the subject?
PS there are exactly 4 States and one Federal District that have codified cannabis as an age restricted product. The age is 21, not 18. That’s the work of the legalizers, not the prohibitionist cohort.