Pubdate: Thu, 24 Dec 2015
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2015 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Seth Leibsohn
Note: Seth Leibsohn is chairman of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy.

THE CLEAR, CONVINCING CASE AGAINST LEGALIZING POT

For Arizonans who have spent their lives and careers seeking positive 
outcomes for our children's health, education and welfare, E.J. 
Montini's Dec. 17 column, "Marijuana initiative slyly spreads like 
weed," must have come as quite a shock.

In arguing for an initiative to legalize marijuana, Montini's source 
came from a pro-marijuana lobbyist: broadcasting several errors of 
fact and logic.

The lobbyist stated that those opposed to legalizing marijuana use 
one tool, "fear." Indeed there is a great deal to fear from making a 
dangerous drug like marijuana more available, but that fear is 
actually based on scientific and medical fact.

There is a reason, after all, the American Medical Association, the 
American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, 
the American Academy of Neurology and the American Society of 
Addiction Medicine oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use. 
When it comes to making a dangerous drug more available, we would 
recommend listening to doctors, not lobbyists.

The New England Journal of Medicine found last year adverse effects 
of just short term marijuana use include "impaired short-term 
memory," "impaired motor coordination," "altered judgment" and, in 
high doses, "paranoia and psychosis." Long-term use effects include 
"addiction" and "cognitive impairment." All of this is especially 
consequential to the teen and adolescent user's brain.

But, Montini and the lobbyist tell us, marijuana is safer than 
alcohol. Nobody in responsible substance abuse prevention talks this 
way. Just ask the New York Times' Maureen Dowd. In her experiment she 
passed up her usual chardonnay for a bite or two of a marijuana candy 
bar. She felt as if she "had died" when she went into "a 
hallucinatory state for the next eight hours."

The study quoted by the legalization lobby for its odd point that one 
dangerous substance is safer than another also claims cocaine and 
meth to be safer than alcohol. Perhaps those should be legal too? 
Interestingly, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol 
features supporters who do believe that. The campaign to legalize is 
not just about marijuana after all - not given their supporters, not 
given the studies they cite.

Research shows dangers from youth use of marijuana are 
well-documented. One should also look at the increased hospital 
admissions and poison control calls in marijuana legalization states 
where youth accidental ingestion includes such symptoms as difficulty 
breathing, elevated heart rate, confusion and disorientation, anxiety 
attacks, and loss of motor facility.

And yes, we do fear what the journal Clinical Pediatrics just found: 
In states with marijuana-friendly legislation, there has been a 609 
percent increase in accidental childhood marijuana ingestion. 
Finally, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just 
revealed: Colorado teen marijuana use is now 73 percent higher than 
the rest of the nation.

In the end, we find it odd that Montini would cite a poll from a year 
ago to prove his point that marijuana legalization is inevitable when 
this month's ASU/Morrison Institute poll found legalization in 
Arizona faces "likely defeat." Of course, the vote in Ohio last month 
is also more instructive than last year's poll: legalization was 
defeated by nearly 30 points there. Currently, less than 10 percent 
of the states have legalized marijuana. This simply is not anywhere 
near proof that "opponents have lost," as Mr. Montini writes.

The truth: Arizona's youth use the legal substance alcohol at a rate 
77 percent higher than they use the illegal substance marijuana. To 
make marijuana like alcohol, as the lobbyists' desire, is to take a 
low-use and dangerous substance and turn it into another highuse and 
dangerous substance. It would also radically overturn decades of hard 
work in the substance abuse prevention, health, education, welfare, 
and law enforcement fields. Arizonans shouldn't want this. Nobody should.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom