Allen St. Pierre’s post in the influentual Capitol Hill blog, The Hill (reported earlier here) has been a smashing success on that website.  To date, it has generated 98 comments, almost all positive, which the editor tells us is a record response for a post in that blog.

It has brought the drug warriors out, too.  Reluctantly, I suppose, since they are generally told not to engage in drug war debates (because it’s hard to win an argument against facts, logic, and reason with only scaremongering and lies).  Here it is, with the comment I have posted in response interspersed within the text:

The Hill Blog» Blog Archive » Congress Must Reject Marijuana Decriminalization Bill
Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) recently introduced H.R. 5843, “The Act to Remove Most Federal Penalties for Possession of Marijuana For Personal Use” in Congress. Should this bill come to the floor for a vote, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) urges Congress to vote no. Legislation such as this is not the solution to reducing drug abuse or its concomitant crime and ignores the fact that responsible drug policy should be driven by research based prevention, treatment, and recovery. Not only would H.R. 5843 remove all criminal penalties for anyone, regardless of age, who possesses up to 100 grams of marijuana, but it also removes any criminal penalties associated with the “not-for-profit transfer” of up to one ounce of marijuana and only allows a civil penalty of no more than $100 to be imposed for the public use of marijuana. This legislation severely undermines the prevention efforts of the many community anti-drug coalitions throughout the country and their message that marijuana is not a benign drug.

Yes, decriminalization would severely undermine the efforts to paint marijuana as a dangerous drug… by removing the prohibition-related dangers from marijuana.

Proponents of decriminalization and legalization purport that marijuana is a harmless, non-addictive drug. They also imply that marijuana use begins in adulthood rather than in adolescence. These arguments ignore the facts that marijuana has been classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as an addictive, Schedule I drug; is the most widely abused illicit drug in the nation among both youth and adults; and that treatment rates for marijuana addiction have skyrocketed in recent years. In fact, results from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) revealed that the mean age at first use for marijuana initiates is 17.4, and 63.3% of all marijuana initiates between 2002 and 2006 began prior to age 18. Also, according to the 2007 Monitoring the Future results, 41.8% of high school seniors have tried marijuana, with 18.8% of them reporting that they have used marijuana in the last 30 days. It is important to note that while these trends are disturbing, this national data set masks the fact that many communities throughout the country are seeing a much, much lower age of initiation for marijuana use – often times as young as 12 and 13. Further, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that rates of clinical diagnoses of marijuana abuse and/or dependence for minors has increased by a staggering 492.1 percent between 1992 (when marijuana use was at its lowest point) and 2006. Concurrently, there was a 53.7 percent decrease in rates of clinical diagnoses for all other substances combined, including alcohol, illicit, controlled prescription and over-the-counter drugs and inhalants.

Treatment rates have skyrocketed because the number of “drug courts” that sentence cannabis offenders to treatment have skyrocketed. 1/3rd of the people admitted to marijuana treatment haven’t even used marijuana in over thirty days (how’s that for addictive?) Almost 60% of the people in treatment are there from criminal justice referrals; only 15% seek treatment for marijuana on their own (compared to 21% for meth and 28% for alcoohol).

Furthermore, while 41.8% of American teens have tried pot, only 19.8% of Dutch teens have, where it is tolerated and sold in coffee shops to eager tourists and locals — talk about your “wrong message”; why are half the percentage of Dutch kids using pot compared to the American kids who are getting the “right message”?

Using marijuana at a young age can have deleterious effects on youth. In fact, according to Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), drug addiction is a pediatric/adolescent onset disease and prevention of first use is critical. In other words, the younger the age a person first uses drugs, the higher their chance of adult drug dependency and addiction. The 2002 NSDUH substantiated this fact as it reported that youth who first smoke marijuana under the age of 14 are more than five times as likely to abuse drugs as adults.

Yes, marijuana use by young teens is bad. That’s why I’d prefer they’d be ID’ed at a liquor store to get pot. Weed dealers don’t ask for kids’ ID. Cigarette smoking is bad for kids, too, and we got those rates to decline not by making smokes illegal, but through advertising bans, public health education, anti-smoking campaigns, and social pressure.

Marijuana use among youth also contributes to poor performance in school as indicated by the 2002 NSDUH which reported youth with an average grade of D or below were more than four times as likely to have used marijuana in the past year than youth with an average grade of A. Additionally, according to the NIDA study entitled “Marijuana Abuse: Age of Initiation, Pleasure of Response Foreshadow Young Adult Outcomes,” youth who initiate marijuana use by age 13 usually do not go to college, while those who have abstained from marijuana use, on average, complete almost three years of college. Even if they decrease their usage later in life, those who begin using marijuana by age 13 are more likely to report lower income and lower level of schooling by age 29.

Lots of marijuana using kids can’t go to college because the government takes away their student loans and grants if they are busted for marijuana. And, as usual, CADCA plays the correlation/causation fallacy. Bad grades aren’t caused by weed. Bad grades and weed smoking are caused by many factors, like income, parental involvement, schools, teachers, illnesses, learning disablilities, etc. (Carl Sagan smoked weed; I think his grades were OK.)

A clear link between violence and marijuana use among adolescents also has been established, and exists not only for the perpetrators of violence, but also for those who are victims of violence. For example, in its 2006 National Summary of its Questionnaire Report for Grades 6-12, Pride Surveys reported that of those students who reported carrying a gun to school, 63.9% reported also using marijuana; of those students who reported hurting others with a weapon at school, 68.4% had used marijuana; and of those students who reported being hurt by a weapon at school, 60.3% reported using marijuana.

Hmm, do you suppose that when you’re carrying a contraband plant worth more per ounce than palladium, you might face the possibility of robbery and violence, and you might protect yourself with a gun? Have you ever felt the need to carry a gun while bringing home a 12-pack from the grocery store? No, because it is legal.

Research also illustrates that the decline in the use of any illegal drug is directly related to its perception of harm or risk by the user. Decriminalizing marijuana sends the wrong message to America’s youth, and will de-stigmatize a drug that clearly has the potential to be both dangerous and addictive. While it is true that alcohol and tobacco addiction rates are higher than that of marijuana, this is the case in large part because they are legal substances and the stigma associated with them has been removed. Doing the same for marijuana will only ensure that addiction rates continue to rise.

While the twelve states that decriminalized marijuana, starting with Oregon in 1973, saw a sleight rise in the rates of teen drug use, the rates rose higher in the states that didn’t decriminalize.  Numerous studies have concluded that decriminalization does not lead to an overall rise in use (other factors led to the ’70s rise, like the fact that it was the ’70s and marijuana use went up everywhere).  Furthermore, addiction and hospitalization due to alcohol declined following the repeal of Prohibition.

This is evidenced by the fact that those states which have implemented “medical” marijuana ballot initiatives have some of the highest addiction rates in the country. In those states where marijuana has been equated with medicine, the perception of harm relating to that drug has been drastically reduced and social norms to reinforce “no use” messages, have been undermined. In fact, according to the State Estimates of Substance Use from the 2004–2005 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in February of 2005, most of the states in which marijuana ballot initiatives have been passed were clustered at, or near the bottom of the list, in terms of the perception of great risk associated with smoking marijuana once a month.

In the twelve medical marijuana states, teen use of marijuana has declined since the passages of those laws. Do teens see “medical marijuana” as less harmful than “demon reefers”? Sure, and they should. When we tell kids Schedule I marijuana, heroin, ecstasy, peyote, mushrooms, quaaludes, GHB, LSD, and PCP are all equally harmful, and kid sees friend who smokes weed not turn into a heroin-like junkie, it undermines the perception of danger of the drugs that are really dangerous.

Responsible drug policy must focus on effective research based efforts to both prevent and treat drug use. If passed, H.R. 5843 would normalize the use of a Schedule I addictive drug by removing all criminal penalties associated with possession of up to 100 grams and would reduce the perception of harm associated with marijuana use thereby increasing the number of new initiates and enabling existing addictive behaviors to continue. This is not the message we should send to America’s youth. Congress should vote no on “The Act to Remove Most Federal Penalties for Possession of Marijuana For Personal Use.”

I completely agree with the statement: “Responsible drug policy must focus on effective research based efforts to both prevent and treat drug use.” Unfortunately, the War on Marijuana ignores all of the research, from the 1894 India Hemp Drugs Report to the 1942 LaGuardia Commission report, to Nixon’s 1971 Shaffer Commission report, to the 1999 Institutes of Medicine report, and so many reports of the Canadian, British, and Australian governments that have recommended decriminalization, repudiated the so-called “gateway” theory, and demonstrated marijuana’s medical efficacy.

I dream of the day we base our marijuana policy on research, instead of the hangover from Harry J. Anslinger’s “reefer madness” of the 1930’s and the ongoing continuing culture war against the 1960’s.