Few problems with pot in California
By Adam Nagourney and Rick Lyman, New York Times
LOS ANGELES — In the heart of Northern California’s marijuana growing region, the sheriff’s office is inundated each fall with complaints about the stench of marijuana plots or the latest expropriation of public land by growers. Its tranquil communities have been altered by the emergence of a wealthy class of marijuana entrepreneurs, while nearly 500 miles away in Los Angeles, officials have struggled to regulate an explosion of medical marijuana shops.
But at a time when polls show widening public support for legalization — recreational marijuana is about to become legal in Colorado and Washington, and voter initiatives are in the pipeline in at least three other states — California’s 17-year experience as the first state to legalize medical marijuana offers surprising lessons, experts say.
Warnings voiced against partial legalization — of civic disorder, increased lawlessness and a drastic rise in other drug use — have proved unfounded.
Instead, research suggests both that marijuana has become an alcohol substitute for younger people here and in other states that have legalized medical marijuana, and that while driving under the influence of any intoxicant is dangerous, driving after smoking marijuana is less dangerous than after drinking alcohol.
Although marijuana is legal here only for medical use, it is widely available. There is no evidence that its use by teenagers has risen since the 1996 legalization, though it is an open question whether outright legalization would make the drug that much easier for young people to get, and thus contribute to increased use.
Legalizing weed will make our roads safer. That’s the conclusion of this NY Times story, which refers to a pending study in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management by Mark Anderson and Daniel Reese, who found increased marijuana use to be a substitute for alcohol use in California:
“Based on existing empirical evidence, we expect that the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington will lead to increased marijuana consumption coupled with decreased alcohol consumption. As a consequence, these states will experience a reduction in the social harms resulting from alcohol use.”
Their conclusion, as pointed out in this article and supported by other similar studies, is that legalizing marijuana will result in less fatalities on our roads.
Don’t know about road safety – I suspect that legalizing marijuana won’t make much difference one way or the other. Although, between insurance companies and California Highway Patrol, not to mention MADD and others with personal agendas, there are few public statistics that are more manipulated by folks with special interests than traffic safety statistics.
But for countless reasons, especially the financial cost of enforcement and the personal and social costs, along with the monetary expense (and human suffering) of incarcerating folks who have broken a law but committed no real crime, private citizens and law enforcement officers alike tend to support legalization.
Because the repeal of any law that is widely enforced might eliminate some of the law enforcement “rice bowls,” the officers and administrators who oppose legalization tend to be louder than the one’s who support it.
But, since when do we turn to law enforcement to decide what our laws should be – and why on earth would we?
“Instead, research suggests both that marijuana has become an alcohol substitute for younger people here and in other states that have legalized medical marijuana…”
Is this really true? I have a hard time believing that kids would say no to alcohol just because pot is legal, much less only legal for card carrying smokers. Do THAT many of the younger smokers have medical cards? I am not stating this is false, just hard to believe. When it comes time to vote, I would like to have accurate data and accurate conclusions. I am a firm believer that, if one tortures the data long enough, it will surrender.
‘Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.
In the US cigarette smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., more than 440,000 deaths per year, and an estimated 49,000 of these smoking-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure)’ (source:CDC)
Marijuana: ZERO!
And yet we subsidize the tobacco industry!
Marijuana has been used as an alcohol substitute by teenagers for years. I can still remember 40 plus something years back when it was easier to get. I am sure that still holds true for now it is more universally accepted than it was then. As for legalization, it practically is already. It is exceptionally easy to go to a “Medical Marijuana Doctor” and get your yearly “card” for almost any malaise you can dream up. We are just losing out on taxes by not completely legalizing it.
As far as road safety? Good question. How stoned are the drivers? There is no benchmark test to indicate how much under the influence you are. You test either positive or negative and that could be for your consumption of up to several months ago depending on the test. At least with ETOH you can get instant results with a blow and more definitive with a blood test. You can also test yourself to see if you exceed the 0.08 level to drive.
cigarette smoking is an insidious hazard on so many levels beyond the obvious health and lifestyle risk incurred by tobacco smokers. the rest of us have to constantly deal the with the collateral damage. what’s the deal with cigarette butts out in the woods, or littered anywhere, for that matter? let’s get a CRV on cigarettes now.
No one brings up the issue of teaching are kids that laws are to be ignored and the police are a joke.