Let’s start with good news about marijuana and other drugs of abuse. The percentage of people using illicit drugs in the United States has been reduced approximately 50 percent from its peak in 1979. Among our teenagers, from 2001 to 2005, drug use, primarily marijuana, has dropped by 20 percent. In fact, only about 6.8 percent of youths between the ages of 12 and 18 report using marijuana.
Now the bad news: People such as the proponents of Amendment 44 are playing roulette with our youth and adults by trying to legalize marijuana, which will reverse this downward trend.
What is the real motive behind trying to legalize marijuana? Proponents of 44 want to legalize an ounce of marijuana regardless of the evidence that marijuana use will increase among both teenagers and adults.
We should take a lesson from the Netherlands, which made marijuana legal for adults, resulting in teenage marijuana use tripling in only seven years. In our own country, after Alaska legalized ounce quantities of marijuana for adults, teenage marijuana use in that state doubled to the then-national average (23 percent).
Is this what we want for Colorado’s future leaders? The perception of public acceptance of a behavior plays a significant role in increasing that behavior.
Under Amendment 44, an adult, if not compensated, can legally provide marijuana to a youth 15 or older without fear of being prosecuted under Colorado drug laws. Unbelievable? The proponents in official documents called this loophole an “unintended consequence.”
They now claim that the person could be prosecuted under the statute for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Maybe that will be true, but we won’t know until it is litigated in the courts. How would you feel about an adult giving marijuana to your high school freshman, then waiting for the courts to decide the law?
Let’s not condone these so-called “unintentional consequences” by approving Amendment 44.
The proponents of 44 want you to believe that marijuana is a safe drug. Thousands of legitimate studies from reputable researchers and universities refute that claim. Marijuana is damaging both physically and psychologically.
They try to compare alcohol with marijuana, a faulty comparison since so many more people use alcohol than marijuana. There are more people with major ongoing alcohol problems than use all the illegal drugs combined. Part of the reason is that alcohol is legal, socially accepted and little risk is perceived in its use. Let’s not do that with marijuana. The only true “safe” alternative is sobriety.
Don’t be misled when you hear that alcohol kills, whereas marijuana doesn’t. The fact is marijuana has killed and continues to kill. Ask the grieving parents of all the youths killed on the highways by drivers under the influence of marijuana.
Consider the other potential consequences if the state were to legalize marijuana. Do we really want to attract drug users as a new tourist base or residents? Will your police officers, teachers, bus drivers, pilots and others be able to use marijuana with no sanctions?
Please, for the sake of our great state and its future, vote no on 44.
Thomas J. Gorman retired as deputy chief of the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and is currently director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Area Program. For more inform- ation, go to www.stop44.org.
