Pubdate: Mon, 18 Feb 2013
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2013 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Dash Spiegelman

FAILED POLICY HAS CREATED GENERATION OF YOUNG DRUG DEALERS

This month Rhode Island state Representative Edith Ajello and state 
Senator Donna Nesselbush introduced bills that would tax and regulate 
marijuana for adult recreational use ("R.I. lawmakers introducing 
marijuana legalization bills," Metro, Feb. 6). I applaud their initiative.

Marijuana prohibition has failed, and these measures are an important 
step in correcting that failed policy. Prohibition was intended to 
reduce youth marijuana use, yet daily marijuana use among high 
schoolers has tripled since 1991. National surveys consistently show 
that more than 80 percent of high school seniors say marijuana is 
"fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain.

These statistics shouldn't come as a surprise, since prohibition has 
created a generation of young drug dealers. Last month a group of 
sixth-graders was busted in Utah for selling marijuana in school. 
More than 60 percent of teens says that drugs are used, kept, or sold 
at their high schools.

If we are serious about reducing teen access to marijuana, we have to 
consider alternatives to prohibition. Regulation takes profits away 
from dealers, who currently decide where, when, and to whom marijuana 
is sold. Regulation puts marijuana behind a counter, where retailers check IDs.

It's time we embrace a smarter approach to marijuana policy.

Dash Spiegelman

Providence
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