As a former drug-policy adviser in the Obama administration, I’m often asked why anyone would oppose marijuana legalization. The answer is found in my new book, “Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.” In short, my work has shown that marijuana legalization would pose too many risks to public health and safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations in which I have worked, here are seven widely held myths about marijuana that Americans need to know.
Marijuana activist Brian Vicente speaks in Denver Sept. 4, advocating for Proposition AA, which would enact a 15 percent excise tax on the wholesale distribution of marijuana as well as a 10 percent sales tax at the retail level. Op-ed contributor Keven A. Sabet writes: 'Legalization will cost America. For every $1 in state and federal revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes, America spends more than $10 in social costs.' (Brennan Linsley/AP)
1. Myth: Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive
Admittedly, marijuana is not as dangerous as cocaine or heroin, but to say it is harmless or nonaddictive is to deny science. TheNational Institutes of Health reports that 1 out of every 6 adolescents who try the drug will develop an addiction. This may not amount to the experience of the Woodstock generation, but scientists now know that the average strength of today’s marijuana is some five to six times what it was in the 1960s and 1970s (and some strains are upward of 10 times stronger than in the past). This translated to almost 400,000 marijuana-related emergency room visits in 2008 due to things like acute psychotic episodes and car crashes.
In fact, according to the British Medical Journal, marijuana intoxication doubles your risk of a car crash. Mental health researchers are also noting a significant marijuana connection with schizophrenia. And educators are seeing how persistent marijuana use can blunt academic motivation and significantly reduce IQ – by up to eight points according to a very large recent study in New Zealand. Regular marijuana use hurts America’s ability to learn and compete in a global marketplace.
2. Myth: Smoked or eaten marijuana is medicine
While the marijuana plant has known medical value, that does not mean smoked or ingested raw marijuana is medicine. Just as patients don’t smoke opium or inject heroin for morphine’s medical benefits, they should not smoke marijuana for such reasons.
A pill, Marinol, based on marijuana’s active ingredient, is available by prescription at US pharmacies today. Nearly two dozen countries have approved a new oral spray comprised of marijuana extract. The spray, Sativex, produced in Britain, does not get you high, contains levels of ingredients rarely found in street-grade marijuana, and has proven its effectiveness for relieving cancer pain and muscle spasticity. It will be available in the US soon, and in the meantime, the federal government should start a research program to allow medications like this one to be used by qualified patients under physician supervision.
The point is not to deny patients a medication to help them, but to prevent smoked or eaten marijuana from becoming a smokescreen for recreational use, or from being misused. Patients should be able to access a medication that is both scientifically approved and obtainable at a pharmacy – not “medical marijuana lollipops” at stores that feature bouncers, bongs, and a neon green cross on the door.
3. Myth: Countless people are behind bars simply for smoking marijuana
Reducing America’s high incarceration rate is a lofty goal, and one that I wholeheartedly support. But legalizing marijuana will not make even a small dent in America’s state or federal imprisonment rates. That is because less than 0.3 percent of all state prison inmates are there for smoking marijuana.
Moreover, most people arrested for marijuana use are cited with a ticket. Very few serve time behind bars unless it is in the context of another crime or a probation or parole violation. At the same time, society shouldn’t saddle low-level marijuana users with criminal records. But legalizing marijuana in order to solve that problem is not the answer.
4. Myth: The legality of alcohol and tobacco strengthen the case for legal marijuana
“Marijuana is safer than alcohol, so marijuana should be treated like alcohol” is a catchy, often-used argument in the legalization debate. But this assumes that America’s alcohol policy is something worth modeling. In fact, because alcohol and cigarettes are used at such a high rate due to their wide availability, the country’s two legal intoxicants cause more harm, are the cause of more arrests, and kill more people than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol happens to be legal for cultural reasons, and it would be difficult to turn back the clock on its legalization. But why add a third drug to the list of legal killers?
5. Myth: Legal marijuana will solve government budget problems
A motivating factor for some legislators and voters who favor legalization is a well-intentioned desire to raise government revenue. After all, why let the drug dealers and cartels make all the money in a time of depleted budgets?
Unfortunately, neither states nor the federal government can expect any net gain with marijuana legalization. In fact, legalization will cost America. For every $1 in state and federal revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes, America spends more than $10 in social costs, according to a complication of US government and other studies cited by the White House. Additionally, two major business lobbies – big tobacco and the liquor lobby – work hard to keep taxes on these drugs from rising and to promote use. The last thing the country needs is the “Marlboroization of marijuana.” But that is exactly what we can expect if we let marijuana into the open marketplace.
6. Myth: Portugal and the Netherlands provide successful models of legalization
Contrary to media reports and partisan think tanks, Portugal and the Netherlands have not legalized drugs, including marijuana. In Portugal, someone caught with a small amount of drugs is sent to a three-person panel and given treatment, a fine, or a warning and release. The result of this 2001 policy is less clear. Treatment services were ramped up at the same time the new policy was implemented, and a decade later there are more young people using marijuana, but fewer people dying of opiate and cocaine overdoses.
In the Netherlands, officials seem to be scaling back their marijuana non-enforcement policy (lived out in “coffee shops”) after witnessing higher rates of marijuana use and treatment admissions there. The government no longer allows non-residents to buy marijuana. What all of this says about how legalization would play out in the hyper-commercial US, which is obsessed with advertising, is another point entirely.
7. Myth: People have always smoked marijuana and always will. Why try to stop it?
Less than 8 percent of Americans smoke marijuana versus 52 percent who drink and 27 percent of people who use tobacco products. Instead of normalizing marijuana, we should be keeping it illegal and continue to spend resources on reducing demand. These efforts work. Communities that implement local anti-marijuana strategies by area-wide coalitions of parents, schools, faith communities, businesses, and, yes, law enforcement, have shown significant reductions in marijuana use. Brief interventions and treatment for marijuana addiction also work, as do probation reform programs and drug treatment courts.
Marijuana policy is not straightforward. For some, using pot is not a dangerous issue. For others, marijuana use is a serious problem. For society as a whole, its use is a large and growing public health issue with significant costs.
The Justice Department’s decision to allow for-profit marijuana businesses to take root is dangerous and misguided, inconsistent with international law, and undermines the president’s own objectives to promote health and education. A greater effort should be exerted to make nonsmoked, scientifically approved medications derived from marijuana available, but we should not let myths guide marijuana policy. America can do better.
Source: www.csmmonitor.com
