Pubdate: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 Source: Daily News, The (Newburyport, MA) Copyright: 2009 Eagle Tribune Publishing Company Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/k3oQxseR Website: http://www.newburyportnews.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/693 Author: Scott Mortimer Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n252.a14.html TAKE NOTICE: MARIJUANA LAWS ARE NOW CHANGED To the editor: Apparently law enforcement officials are still campaigning against marijuana decriminalization, four months after the historic passage of Question 2. Pending legislation at the Statehouse could undermine the new law. What happened to the old law enforcement adage, "We don't make the laws, we just enforce them"? When Massachusetts voters approved Question 2 by an overwhelming margin - 65 percent to 35 percent, nearly 2 to 1 - we rejected 80 years of failed, overly punitive policy that resulted in some of the highest rates of marijuana usage in the world, particularly among minors. When the first criminal marijuana laws were passed in the early 1900s, usage was confined to a very small portion of the population. Today, 43 percent of graduating high school students say they've used marijuana, and studies show it's easier for kids to get marijuana than beer. Criminal marijuana prohibition has been an utter failure by any measure. In the Netherlands, where cannabis is regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco, usage rates are far lower than in the U.S. A 2008 World Health Organization study showed that 42 percent of Americans admit marijuana use, while usage in the Netherlands was only 20 percent. Among those 15 years of age or under, the usage rate in the U.S. was 20 percent; in the Netherlands, only 7 percent had used marijuana by 15. Yet even after Question 2's overwhelming approval, the exaggeration and mythology continues. Sheriff Cousins (Viewpoint, March 3) states that Q2's backers said the measure would reduce prison overcrowding - I don't see that on their Web site. What they did say is that Question 2 would save money in policing costs - since an arrest can take an officer off the street for hours - and also in court costs. Marijuana violations are now payable by mail, instead of hiring a lawyer and going to court to fight criminal charges, which contributed to our back-logged court system. He recycles the old "gateway effect" myth, even though this theory has been disproved again and again in federally funded studies, e.g., the 1999 Institute of Medicine report that stated marijuana "does not appear to be a gateway drug to the extent that it is the cause or even that it is the most significant predictor of serious drug abuse." Sheriff Cousins then lists the negative consequences of marijuana arrest and the resulting permanent record, seeming to forget that 68 percent of Newburyport just voted to stop ruining people's lives over marijuana use - possession is now a civil offense. Minors get the fine and extra community service hours to work off. Massachusetts citizens are some of the hardest-working, best-educated people in the United States. The vast majority of us have had our own experiences with marijuana or seen friends or family use it. We've heard all the propaganda, but we decided to move forward in a new direction. As Thomas Jefferson stated so eloquently, "It is a happy truth that man is capable of self-government." References: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/HSYouthtrends.html http://www.decp.org/documents/pdfs/WhatNew/CASA 2008 Teen Survey.pdf http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/90295/ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/01/health/webmd/main4222322.shtml http://www.sensiblemarijuanapolicy.org/about-initiative Scott Mortimer Newburyport - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin