Pubdate: Sun, 20 Oct 2013
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Santa Cruz Sentinel
Contact: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/submitletters
Website: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394

MORE RESEARCH ON POT NEEDED

There are certain issues where the tide of public opinion inexorably 
turns the level of discourse.

That's what's happening with marijuana, where only a few years ago 
California voters turned down a ballot measure legalizing personal 
use of the drug.

But that was so 2010.

By this past November, voters in Washington and Colorado had voted to 
legalize pot. The ballot measures benefited from a long list of 
leaders who argue that continuing criminalization of personal use was 
a huge waste of resources -- and that officially regulating marijuana 
would bring in needed tax dollars.

Last week, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was one of the first 
elected political leaders in the state to champion gay marriage, 
joined with the American Civil Liberties Union to back a new two-year 
research effort that will study the legal and policy issues that will 
stem from permitting adult use of recreational marijuana.

They're not exactly blowing smoke, since recent polls show nearly 
two-thirds of Californians support legalizing, regulating and taxing pot.

At least Newsom and the ACLU are willing to take some time and look 
at the implications of making yet another intoxicant legally 
available (not that illegal marijuana isn't already widely available).

Their goal is to put a legalization measure on the 2016 ballot.

But that might not be good enough for other pot partisans who have 
filed proposals to put recreational legalization measures on the 
state's 2014 ballot. Both proposals would regulate and tax marijuana 
similar to alcohol.

The danger -- one danger -- is that too many measures will confuse 
voters, who might weary of the issue by 2016, when a presidential 
election will take place. We've thought one reason the 2010 measure 
failed -- 53 percent of voters opposed -- was because of the 
confusion over medical marijuana in the state. California was the 
first state to legalize medical pot, way back in 1996. Since then, 
medical marijuana has been enmeshed in political, judicial and law 
enforcement problems. Cities and counties, including Santa Cruz, have 
wrestled with how to regulate medical pot dispensaries and how to 
deal with the abuses and criminal activities that have plagued the movement.

And here's another catch: Although the Obama administration has shown 
no desire to light up the law enforcement debate in Washington and 
Colorado, the sales and cultivation of marijuana continues to be a 
federal crime and could again be prosecuted as such.

That's not all. The local Highway Patrol last year warned that 
driving while under the influence of marijuana is becoming a major 
problem on Santa Cruz County roads, contributing to fatal crashes 
involving impaired drivers.

As for young brains, some medical researchers have found a disturbing 
relationship between the use of marijuana and the development of 
schizophrenia and other related mental disorders. The increased 
potency of the active chemical ingredient in marijuana and societal 
acceptance of the drug would seem to argue that any causal 
relationship between chronic use and psychotic disorders would at 
least be plausible among people who, for whatever reason, might be 
vulnerable to falling off the cliff of sanity.

The increasing acceptance also might explain why, according to a 
government report, one of every 15 high school students smokes 
marijuana on a near daily basis, an alarming figure even as the use 
of alcohol, cigarettes and harder drugs among teenagers has been declining.

Research shows many of these teen users believe habitual use of the 
drug carries little risk, physically or psychologically. The widening 
acceptance of medical marijuana and the tacit tolerance of individual 
use in communities such as Santa Cruz may be creating a false belief 
there's no problems associated with living life stoned.

Still, considering the shift in attitudes, we have little doubt 
marijuana will be legalized in the state during the next decade. This 
seemingly would put the torch to repression and unnecessary 
criminalization -- and light up the kind of unintended consequences 
backers should consider carefully.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom