Pubdate: Fri, 18 Dec 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Robert DuPont, Peter Bensinger, Linden Blue
Note: Dr. Robert DuPont is president of the Institute for Behavior 
and Health Inc. and was the first director of the National Institute 
on Drug Abuse. Peter Bensinger is senior consultant at Bensinger 
DuPont Morneau Shepell and served as the administrator of the Drug 
Enforcement Administration. Linden Blue is vice chairman of General 
Atomics and a trustee of the Hudson Institute.

LESSONS FROM POT EXPERIMENT

By legalizing "recreational" marijuana in 2012, Colorado challenged 
marijuana policy, not just for the United States but for the world. 
Even earlier, Colorado legalized "medical marijuana," with a full 
blown commercial industry beginning in 2009. Today, three years into 
fully legal marijuana, it is time to ask, "How's that working out?"

While there is dispute over just about everything related to 
marijuana in Colorado, three facts stand out. First the advent of 
legal marijuana did not eliminate the illegal market for marijuana. 
Illegal marijuana is cheaper than legal marijuana because of the 
taxes paid and the regulations required for the legal product.

A common, half-joking, observation is that the legal marijuana sales 
are mostly to people from out of state and senior citizens.

Among the many users the illegal market serves are those underage.

But the illegal market doesn't impact only Colorado. Marijuana from 
Colorado is trafficked to 40 other states.

As the problems created by marijuana multiply, the increasing 
regulation of legal marijuana products will further empower the 
illegal suppliers who face none of the costs or restrictions placed 
on legal marijuana.

Second, legal marijuana has unleashed a new gold rush with big money 
pouring into the marijuana industry fueling shameless and dishonest 
commercialization that makes the sellers of tobacco and alcohol look 
downright timid.

Big money is pushing out the hippie entrepreneurs who used to 
characterize local marijuana growers.

This new money has powerful political consequences that are 
increasingly shaping the public reactions to marijuana and making any 
restrictions on the industry more difficult.

Third, any hope that more marijuana use would decrease alcohol use is 
now being dispelled.

Data from the Colorado Department of Revenue Alcohol use confirms 
that alcohol consumption has not declined since marijuana 
legalization. The use of alcohol - and other drugs - is positively 
correlated with marijuana use. Alcohol and marijuana are economic 
complements. National survey data confirms that people who use 
marijuana are more likely to use alcohol than those who do not use 
marijuana, instead of less.

The hopes that marijuana legalization would end the black market, 
that legal marijuana would escape the worst abuses of the sale of 
alcohol and tobacco and that more marijuana would translate into 
declines in alcohol have been dashed by Colorado's dramatic three 
year experiment.

The disputes over marijuana policy go on. There is abundant data 
showing increases in underage marijuana use, increases in 
marijuana-related poison control calls, emergency room visits and 
hospital admissions, and increases in the prevalence of 
marijuana-related traffic deaths in Colorado. These outcomes will not 
dim the widely promoted claims about the benefits from marijuana legalization.

The citizens of Colorado are left with the disturbing consequences of 
their dangerous experiment.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom