Pubdate: Sun, 21 Oct 2012
Source: Herald and News (Klamath Falls, OR)
Copyright: 2012 Herald and News
Contact:  http://www.heraldandnews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2600
Authors: Debbie Vought, Jeanette Rutherford, Jeff Young, Kristy 
Creed, Lucas Ritter, Paul Hillyer, Tamra Narramore, Tony Swan, Vicki Kaber.
Note: This was submitted by the Board of the Directors of the 
Citizens for Safe Schools: Debbie Vought, Jeanette Rutherford, Jeff 
Young, Kristy Creed, Lucas Ritter, Paul Hillyer, Tamra Narramore, 
Tony Swan and Vicki Kaber.

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION IS NOT A BURDEN ON SOCIETY

Legalizing Pot Would Only Benefit Sellers and Participants, and 
Endanger People on the Roads

Editor's Note

Ballot Measure 80 on the Nov. 6 ballot would allow personal use of 
marijuana and cultivation of marijuana for personal use. It would 
also allow sale of marijuana at state-licensed stores on a commercial basis.

The marijuana lobby - groups like NORML that represent drug users - 
is spending heavily to convince voters in Colorado, Washington and 
Oregon to legalize pot. But for the 90 percent of us who don't smoke 
marijuana, the argument against legalization is simple and 
compelling: It will hurt the next generation and increase the carnage 
on our highways.

And there is no upside. Legalization won't unclog our prisons or 
bring tax benefits.

Brain development continues until age 26, but marijuana interferes 
with normal growth and permanently alters the teenage brain. A 
decades-long study looking at teenage pot-smokers who continued using 
into adulthood found that average IQ declined by eight points between 
ages 13 and 38. Quitting pot did not reverse the process.

A peer-reviewed study published last year in the British Medical 
Journal showed that marijuana use increased the risk for psychosis in 
young adults aged 14-24.

Adolescent pot-smokers become addicted at twice the adult rate. And, 
research shows that teenagers who smoke marijuana regularly do worse 
in school, drop out at much higher rates and have less satisfying 
careers as adults. With local dropout rates approaching 40 percent we 
cannot afford to see them go any higher.

No parent wants this for their children, but since 2008 the number of 
teens who smoke pot regularly (at least 20 times per month) has 
increased by 80 percent. The marijuana lobby's campaign to convince 
us that pot is harmless is mostly to blame.

Behind the wheel, marijuana poses the same problems as alcohol. 
Researchers at the University of Auckland compared average drivers to 
people killed or hospitalized by car accidents, and found that 
regular marijuana users were 9.5 times as likely to be in a serious 
or fatal car wreck. In comparison, someone who's legally drunk (blood 
alcohol = .08) is 11 times as likely to be in any type of crash. The 
rates are similar.

But, while everyone knows driving drunk is dangerous, marijuana 
advocates often insist that pot smokers are safe drivers, and surveys 
show many of them drive within an hour of getting high.

According to Alan Crancer, retired research analyst for the National 
Highway Transportation Safety Administration, if marijuana use 
becomes more prevalent, as it would with legalization, it could 
overtake alcohol as the deadliest drug on the road. The marijuana 
lobby's claim that pot is safer than alcohol and never killed anyone 
is just plain wrong.

The claim that thousands of people are behind bars for simple 
possession is also untrue. The Justice Department researched this 
claim and found that almost everyone in federal prison for marijuana 
possession had prior offenses, pleaded down from a more serious 
charge, or was in possession of very large amounts - the median was 
115 pounds. They're not there for just smoking a joint.

The tax story is equally misleading. Taxes on alcohol come nowhere 
near paying for what it costs society. These include criminal-justice 
and health care costs, and the most expensive of all, lost work 
productivity and absenteeism. Marijuana would be the same: a net 
drain on society.

Legalizing marijuana would benefit people who sell the stuff and 
those who only care about getting high. Legalizing marijuana sends 
the wrong message to our children and puts them in harm's way. For 
the rest of us, keeping pot illegal is the better option. Marijuana 
prohibition is not a burden on society; it's a benefit.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom