Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jan 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 Washington Post Writers Group
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Ruth Marcus, Washington Post Writers Group

THE PERILS OF LEGALIZED POT

Marijuana legalization may be the same-sex marriage of 2014 - a trend 
that reveals itself in the course of the year as obvious and 
inexorable. At the risk of exposing myself as the fuddy-duddy I seem 
to have become, I hope not.

This is, I confess, not entirely logical and a tad hypocritical. At 
the risk of exposing myself as not the total fuddy-duddy of my 
children's dismissive imaginings, I have done my share of inhaling, 
though back in the age of bell-bottoms and polyester.

Next time I'm in Colorado, I expect, I'll check out some Bubba Kush. 
Why not? They used to warn about pot being a gateway drug, but the 
only gateway I'm apt to be heading through at this stage is the one to Lipitor.

Still, widespread legalization is a bad idea, if an inevitable 
development. Washington state is the next to light up, in a few 
months. A measure is heading to the ballot in Alaska this year, along 
with measures in Oregon and California. As with gambling - also a bad 
idea, by the way - more states are certain to feel the peer pressure 
for tax dollars and tourist revenue.

I'm not arguing that marijuana is riskier than other, already legal 
substances, namely alcohol and tobacco. Indeed, pot is less 
addictive; an occasional joint strikes me as no worse than an 
occasional drink. If you had a choice of which of the three 
substances to ban, tobacco would have to top the list. Unlike pot and 
alcohol, tobacco has no socially redeeming value; used properly, it 
is a killer.

So the reason to single out marijuana is the simple fact of its 
current (semi-)illegality. On balance, society will not be better off 
with another mind-altering legal substance. In particular, our kids 
will not be better off with another mind-altering legal substance.

As the American Medical Association concluded in recommending against 
legalization last November, "Cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such 
is a public health concern." The association added: "It is the most 
common illicit drug involved in drugged driving, particularly in 
drivers under the age of 21. Early cannabis use is related to later 
substance use disorders."

And this point, for me, is the most convincing: "Heavy cannabis use 
in adolescence causes persistent impairments in neurocognitive 
performance and IQ, and use is associated with increased rates of 
anxiety, mood, and psychotic thought disorders."

A 2012 study of more than 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 38 
found that "persistent cannabis use was associated with 
neuropsychological decline broadly across domains of functioning, 
even after controlling for years of education." Long-term users saw 
an average decline of eight IQ points.

Once again, teenage toking was the problem. The decrease in IQ was 
linked only to those with adolescent marijuana use, not those who 
started in adulthood.

"Impairment was concentrated among adolescent-onset cannabis users, 
with more persistent use associated with greater decline," the study 
reported. For those who started as teens, stopping didn't fully 
restore functioning. The results, it concluded "are suggestive of a 
neurotoxic effect of cannabis on the adolescent brain."

Please do not argue that Colorado's law, like those proposed 
elsewhere, bans sales to those under 21. Hah! I have teenage 
children. The laws against underage drinking represent more challenge 
to overcome than barrier to access.

And although alcohol seems the teen drug of choice among the 
adolescents I know, the more widely available marijuana becomes, the 
more minors will use it. If seniors in fraternities can legally buy 
pot, more freshmen and sophomores will be smoking more of it.

And it's not as if the kids need encouragement. By the time they have 
graduated from high school, nearly half have tried smoking pot; 16.5 
percent of eighth-graders have. More alarming, the number who 
perceive great risk from regular use has been plummeting, from 58 
percent to 40 percent among 12th-graders, according to a study funded 
by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

And for those who trumpet tight controls on sales to minors, a third 
of 12th-graders who live in states with medical marijuana and who 
have used the drug in the past year report that one source is another 
person's prescription. Another 6 percent have their own Rx.

Throwing people in jail for smoking pot is dumb and wasteful. Given 
changing public attitudes - for the first time last year, a majority 
of Americans supported legalization - Colorado and Washington are apt 
to be the vanguard states, not the outliers.

If this doesn't make you nervous, you are smoking something. Maybe even legally.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom