How many people did we pee test for alcohol to get fewer kids getting drunk?

Catching up on some reading about the Michigan effort to legalize marijuana when I caught this talking point from a prohib:

(Detroit Free-Press) At a news conference Friday at Roberts Riverwalk Hotel & Residence in Detroit, a dozen members of the Committee for a Safer Michigan announced the kickoff of their effort to put their legalization question on Michigan’s November ballot.

“We say no to legalizing marijuana,” said Judy Rubin, executive director of the Tri-Community Coalition, a group that works to end youth substance abuse in Berkley, Huntington Woods and Oak Park.

“Do we really want more harmful substances for our youth? We’re already doing a pretty poor job with alcohol,” she said.

First of all, did you mean more “harmful substances” or “more harmful” substances?  Because marijuana is certainly not “more harmful” than alcohol.  As for it being a “harmful substance”?  Well, marijuana use might not be healthful for most teens, but it is no more harmful than the Red Bulls, Five Hour Energys, and Starbucks Frappacinos we don’t card kids for.

But I really wanted to address “we’re doing a pretty poor job with alcohol”, because, actually, we are doing a great job with alcohol.

According to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use & Health, since the beginning of the medical marijuana era (1996), binge drinking figures for 8th, 10th, and 12th grades have all dropped – by more than one-fifth for seniors, more than one-quarter for sophomores, and more than one-third for 8th graders.

We've dramatically lowered alcohol and tobacco use among teens without locking up a single adult for possession of those substances

Furthermore, when we take a longer look at youth substance use, we find we’re doing a fine job with the two legal drugs – alcohol and tobacco – and the fear of rising marijuana use rates is misplaced.  At the peak of youth use in the late 1970′s, among high school seniors over 93% had tried alcohol, over 75% had tried tobacco, and over 60% had tried marijuana.

Today, thanks to a raise in the drinking age from 18-19 to 21, aggressive anti-tobacco education, and strict ID carding programs, now only over 70% of seniors have tried alcohol, over 43% have tried tobacco, and over 41% have tried marijuana.*

Finally, while nobody here advocates for kids using alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana, we do recognize that kids will encounter these things in society.  When our laws punish marijuana so severely and when our schools are drug testing for marijuana they provide incentive to choose more harmful substances that aren’t detected so easily.  A hit of acid, shot of tequila, pill of ecstasy, line of coke, and syringe of heroin on a Friday night will easily be eliminated long before any school drug test can pick it up on Monday… but a joint can stay in their system for a week or longer.

* One may notice in the graph supplied that marijuana use did drop to as low as over 32% by 1992, rising to almost 50% by 1999.  The long decline of marijuana use in the 1980′s was due to severe supply restriction thanks to Reagan Administration eradication efforts – this was long before the indoor growing boom.  That sharp marijuana decline was offset by a sharp cocaine increase.  Less than 10% of seniors had tried cocaine in the 1970′s.  By 1985 (my senior year), over 17% of seniors had tried cocaine.  The 1990′s sharp increase can be traced to increased supply through indoor cultivation.

Remember last December when our Drug Czar, “Gateway” Gil Kerlikowske, was telling us how medical marijuana was to blame for rising teen pot use?

“If young people don’t really perceive that [marijuana] is dangerous or of any concern, it usually means there’ll be an uptick in the number of kids who are using. And sure enough, in 2009, that’s exactly what we did see,” Kerlikowske told ABC News Radio.

“We have been telling young people, particularly for the past couple years, that marijuana is medicine,” the former Seattle police chief argued. “So it shouldn’t be a great surprise to us that young people are now misperceiving the dangers or the risks around marijuana.”

Well, the latest data from the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services is out.  NORML took a look at page 264 of the State Estimates of Substance Use and Mental Disorders from the 2008-2009 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, which compares teen use in the 2002-2003 survey with the 2008-2009 numbers.  In 2003 there were eight medical marijuana states; in 2009 there were thirteen.  Let’s see how monthly use of marijuana by children aged 12-17 changed in six years of medical marijuana’s rising popularity.

The blue states are where teen use went up slightly. Everywhere else, teen use dropped.

On this map, states shaded in blue are where teen use of marijuana on a monthly basis increased.  States with dark green outline had medical marijuana before 2003.  States with light green outline added medical marijuana between 2002-2009.  Don’t adjust your monitor; there indeed were only three states (and DC) where teen marijuana use increased:

• California +0.26%
• District of Columbia +1.08%
• Colorado +3.77%
• Wyoming +5.18%

The opponents of medical marijuana might seize on the fact that California and Colorado are the two states most associated with storefront dispensaries, so that’s why teen use went up.  But that doesn’t make a lot of sense when Wyoming, with no medical law, leads the nation in increase of teen use and Montana, which until this July had storefront dispensaries, had the greatest decrease in teen use of any medical marijuana state.  In fact, eleven of the thirteen states that had medical marijuana as of 2009 saw declines in teen marijuana use, and the five that added it after 2003 saw double-digit declines.

• Montana -27.09%
• Vermont -26.95%
• Hawaii -24.24%
• Maine -19.98%
• Alaska -17.15%
• Rhode Island -16.11%
• Washington -15.15%
• Michigan -14.95%
• New Mexico -10.92%
• Oregon -6.66%
• Nevada -6.37%

There was an overall decline in teen marijuana use nationwide of -13.08%, so it could be said that medical marijuana states Nevada, Oregon, and New Mexico saw less of a decline than the nation, but that would be true of non-medical states where marijuana use is still punished quite severely, like Idaho, Texas, and Indiana.

How many adults did we arrest for smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol to get these teen rates to drop so far?

NORML’s not trying to tell you that medical marijuana makes teen marijuana use go down.  Unlike Gateway Gil, we understand that correlation does not equal causation.  Teen use of marijuana depends on many factors, such as availability, social pressure, economy, law enforcement, perception of risk, and many others.  What we will tell you is that our prohibition policy against adult use hasn’t stopped kids from trying marijuana and has led to teen use of more dangerous substances like the “synthetic marijuana” incense products.  We will tell you that teen use of alcohol and tobacco, two legal and very addictive substances, have declined to their lowest rates ever thanks to strict ID carding, public education campaigns, and advertising restrictions.

Until we convince parents legalization doesn't lead to this, we're sunk.

(NY Times) Young adults who started using [cannabis] regularly in their early teens performed significantly worse on tests assessing brain function than did subjects who were at least 16 when they started, scientists reported last week.

The findings led researchers at McLean Hospital to surmise that the developing teenage brain may be particularly vulnerable to the ill effects of marijuana.

The study, done in conjunction with brain scans, was small, consisting of 35 chronic marijuana smokers who were 22 years old on average. The subjects were asked to complete an assessment of executive function — the brain processes responsible for planning and abstract thinking, as well as understanding rules and inhibiting inappropriate actions. The test — in which participants were asked to sort cards with different shapes, numbers and colors — is a measure of cognitive flexibility.

We’ll talk to Dr. Mitch about this study on Wednesday, but it seems to underscore something we’ve said at NORML all along: marijuana use is not for kids.  It is incumbent upon us as reformers to emphasize this, to preach responsible use and that means “adults only”.

We also must illustrate that it is the prohibition of cannabis that most endangers their children.  It is ironic that the photo I’ve included in the post is a shot of what’s happening now under prohibition, but that it scares parents into resisting legalization.  Prohibition makes it profitable to deal weed in school.  Prohibition means nobody is checking any IDs for purchases.  Prohibition gives marijuana a rebellious quality adolescent boys find irresistible.

Even under legalization some adolescents will use marijuana but at least we’ll dismantle the economic incentive to provide weed to kids.  Our efforts to educate kids about cannabis will be taken more seriously by youngsters if we’re honest about cannabis and its responsible adult use.  As it is now, kids are told marijuana is a gateway to heroin and the people that use it are addicts and slackers who’ll never amount to anything.  Then they watch the Olympics and the World Series and see tokers like Michael Phelps and Tim Lincecum performing at the top of their sports.  Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube seem to have decent careers.

Why should they believe this latest NY Times headline when they hear so many reefer madness lies that are disproved by their own eyes?

And in other news, people who listen to polkas are twice as likely to drink beer, people who listen to Barry White are twice as likely not to be virgins, and people who attend Ozzfest are more likely to have tattoos.

(Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Medicine) PITTSBURGH, Dec. 22 – Teens who frequently listen to music that contains references to marijuana are more likely to use the drug than their counterparts with less exposure to such lyrics, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study online now in the journal Addiction.

“Based on an analysis of survey data from 959 ninth-graders, we found that students who listen to music with the most references to marijuana are almost twice as likely to have used the drug than their peers whose musical tastes favor songs less focused on substance use, even after controlling for confounding factors,” said Brian Primack, M.D.,Ed.M., M.S., lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Pitt’s School of Medicine.

“Interestingly, we also found that exposure to marijuana in music was not associated with other high-risk behaviors, such as excessive alcohol consumption. This suggests that there is a real link between the marijuana lyrics and marijuana use,” said Dr. Primack.

“Although it may be that heavy exposure to music about marijuana causes marijuana smoking, it may also be that those who smoke marijuana seek out music with lyrics related to marijuana,” noted Dr. Primack.

Do ya think, Doc?  Geez, chalk up another scientific victory for the Department of No Shit, Sherlock.  Of course teens who like pot like music that relates to what they like.  But to even insinuate that the music might be causing the pot smoking is an insult to our intelligence and the schools that gave you that alphabet soup of letters behind your name.  This isn’t 1969 where the teens are beholden to the music the dee-jays choose to play on a handful of terrestrial radio stations.  This is 2009 where the teens are listening to iPods and custom internet music streams like Pandora.  So if research shows that kids with Kottonmouth Kings in their favorites are more likely to be pot smokers, it’s not because they were force-fed that music and it caused them to seek out pot, it’s because they are pot smokers and they typed “marijuana” into a music search engine.

It’s not even that interesting to find that teens listening to pot-themed music aren’t more likely to drink a lot of booze or engage in other high-risk behaviors.  People who smoke pot often do so because it is the lowest risk mind-altering behavior they can engage in.

I wonder if we can get Dr. Primack a first class flight to Bavaria for Oktoberfest next year, so he can study whether or not teens who are exposed to German polkas with beer lyrics are more likely to drink beer?

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1. More teens will smoke marijuana this month than cigarettes
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A recent study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has some startling results about teens and drugs.

In their study, they found that 40 percent of teens could get marijuana within a day; another quarter said they could get it within an hour. In another portion of the survey, teens between the ages of 12 and 17 say it’s easier to get marijuana than buy cigarettes, beer or prescription drugs. That number is up 37 percent from 2007.

But, local law enforcement says these numbers don’t match up to what’s happening here in east Idaho.

Kim Ellis, Pocatello Police department: “That’s something that we’re seeing here, but as far as what we’re seeing the statistics don’t bear out, that way, we’re seeing a lot more underage consumption citations than marijuana, possession of marijuana.”

According the Pocatello Police Department, since the beginning of the year there were 58 alcohol violations with minors younger than 18, while there were only 12 marijuana violations.

Law enforcement credit’s this to in school programs like “DARE” and having school resource officers available.

Did you think about crediting this to the fact that student’s ability to procure marijuana and police records of marijuana arrests have nothing to do with each other?  Cops bust a college keg party or run an ID check at clubs all the time, both situations where there are adults legally enjoying alcohol but some minors sneak in.  Sure you’re going to have more alcohol citations, as people using alcohol are more likely to do it in a manner that brings police interaction.

But marijuana you’re going to keep under wraps, especially in a conservative part of the country like North Utah Southeastern Idaho.  So don’t credit D.A.R.E., which has been proven to be ineffective at keeping teens from trying drugs.

(Detroit News) Warren — Authorities have charged four teens in connection with the beating death of a man Sunday over a $5 bag of marijuana, officials said.

The suspects have been identified as Kevin David Antone, 18, of Warren; Thomas Henry Post, 17, of Roseville; Jacob Steven Androsuk, 17, and Brandon Lee Ebel, 16, both of Warren, officials said.

All four face second-degree murder charges as well as a count of armed robbery and a count of conspiracy to commit robbery in the death of Michael Daniel McCarthy, 46, according to authorities. Second-degree murder is punishable by life in prison.

Police say the group of young men hit McCarthy over the head with a piece of cement, then stomped on him for several minutes, after he refused to hand over a bag of drugs provided by Ebel.

The argument began after Ebel showed up at his father’s home in the 8600 block of Stephens Street to sell his father a baggie of the drug, Dwyer said. McCarthy, a friend of the father, also took a bag.

The teen left, but then returned, angry, with three friends. The teens argued with McCarthy over the $5 bag before beating him and taking off.

The police chief in a statement said, “The loss of any life is tragic, but more often than not acts of extreme violence are the result of this type of criminal behavior involving drugs.”  Really?  I’ve purchased more than a few “baggies of the drug” and never once experienced any type of criminal behavior.

However, I was never forced to buy a baggie of weed from my friend’s teenage son, either.  Did the police chief ever stop to think that a 46-year-old man wouldn’t be buying marijuana from violent criminal teenagers if he could purchase it in a well-lit, secure marijuana store from another adult who checks ID?  When’s the last time you heard tell of four teenagers selling a six pack of beer to their old man and a six pack to his friend, then beating the friend to death over a dispute on the transaction?

From my alter-ego blog on our Dallas – Fort Worth NORML blog, I wrote a small rant about a local ISD poll that was taken in regards to cigarettes, alcohol, Marijuana and other drugs.

From the Dallas Morning News, Jessica Meyers, Reporters Notes:
Frisco ISD students surveyed on drug use:

Shoved between a discussion of funding streams and TAKS results at Monday’s board meeting was a glimpse into Frisco ISD’s drug war.

About 4,000 students from seventh to 10th grade responded to a survey about drug and alcohol use in the district’s schools.

Almost 20 percent reported using alcohol in the past year. About 17 percent considered alcohol a major problem in FISD and 40 percent said it was an issue. Less than 10 percent reported using marijuana or other drugs, although 660 students said they first drank between ages 10 and 13. Almost 200 students said they started using drugs at roughly the same age.

Other results:
• 22 percent of students consider drugs a major problem in FISD
• 14.6 percent said they see marijuana on campus, 16 percent see pills and 8 percent see other drugs.

In all reality, it’s easier to get Marijuana in school than alcohol or cigarettes. In fact, when polled, teens frequently admit the only place they can find alcohol or cigarettes is either from their parents or friends older than 21. In contrast, Marijuana is very easy to obtain because there isn’t a clerk asking for an ID and providing a high level of scrutiny. I don’t know how it is around the rest of the country, but in Texas, if a clerk sells alcohol or cigarettes to a minor, they go to jail. I don’t know any clerk willing to go to jail for minimum wage.

This couldn’t be more true, but not just for our ISD, but for yours. Ask a kid how hard it is to get drugs in their school, and then ask them where they get cigarettes and alcohol. One of my neighbors tells me he scores his best weed from his own kid who is in high school. Isn’t that amazing?

You need to do this, you need to ask them, you need to learn this for yourself.

Prohibitionists and the ignorant alike cry, “It’s for our children, it’s all for the kids!!” and continue to spread the word of ignorance. The truth is right in front of us, just ask them. Is the war against drugs working?

Help the children by helping us. Support and help us with the legalization of Marijuana so that it can be taxed and regulated.

A new study, published in the journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy, shows that one-third of teens use marijuana to treat health problems rather than recreationally, when conventional medicine fails, or access to healthcare is limited.

Researchers from University of British Columbia interviewed 63 adolescents who used marijuana. Twenty said they used marijuana to for treatment of behavioral health problems, pain, sleep difficulty, and problems with concentration.

Rather than rely on ineffective prescriptions with unwanted side effects, the teens said they used marijuana, not to get high, but to treat their health problems.

The authors write, Youth who reported they had been prescribed drugs such as Ritalin, Prozac or sleeping pills, stopped using them because they did not like how these drugs made them feel or found them ineffective. For these kids, the purpose of smoking marijuana was not specifically about getting high or stoned”.

via Teens Using Marijuana to Treat Health Problems,.

Teenagers, then, seem to use marijuana much the way adults do.  Most use “recreationally”, some use “medicinally”.  For those medicinal users, it is not a surprise to me that they prefer the natural and mild marijuana to the harsh and addictive pharmaceuticals.  Not a single interview with a patient goes by where they fail to tell me how much they prefer cannabis to handfuls of pills.

We’re a nation that addicts our children to high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats, and caffeine even at pre-school ages.  If a child is slightly rambunctious or drivingly inquisitive we have some sort of pill to bring them back into “the norm” of child behavior.  Nine million of these kids don’t have any sort of health insurance to get those pills in the first place.  We think nothing of giving our kids all sorts of over-the-counter cold and flu remedies. Are we surprised some reject it all for a natural remedy?

AUSTIN — Though they are legally considered adults and can serve in the military, 18-year-old Texans would be considered minors when it comes to smoking under a bill passed unanimously through a Senate committee Tuesday.

The measure would increase the legal age for buying tobacco products to 19, and would cut off an estimated $12.5 million in tax revenue for the state over the next two years.

Supporters say raising the legal age will prevent teens from smoking an extra year and keep cigarettes out of high schools, where they can be passed along to younger students.

According to the Department of State Health Services, roughly one-fourth of Texas high school students smoked cigarettes in 2006.

Four other states — Alabama, Utah, Alaska and New Jersey — have raised the smoking age to 19.

In the past, opponents have said that if 18-year-olds are old enough to serve in the military, they should be able to choose whether to smoke.

But at least one senator who opposed the measure on those grounds two years ago has changed his position. Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, said Tuesday that more information and statistics about teens smoking in high school led him to vote for the measure in committee.

With approval from the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, the proposal now seeks a hearing with the full Senate.

via Texas may raise legal smoking age from 18 to 19 | Front page | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

If our laws actually followed the science about the danger to human development and addictiveness of these substances, the legal age for alcohol would be 24, for tobacco it would be 21, and cannabis would be 18.  Personally, I’ve always felt that a set age for mind-altering substance consumption is not the best way to regulate their use.  I know 18-year-olds who are rational and responsible cannabis consumers and I know 40-year-olds who are reckless and embarrassing.

Therefore, I personally think we ought to use educational attainment and employment to grant consumption privileges, up until age 24, when you gain the privilege automatically.  Graduate high school (or GED) and contribute 36-months of part- or full-time payroll taxes into Social Security, or 36-months of 2.5 GPA undergrad classes, and you receive your Consumption License.  If a kid started work at 16 and graduated at 18, by age 19 he’d accumulate 36 months and would be allowed to consume alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.  If he didn’t start work until after graduation at 18, or decided to go to college, by age 21 he’d earn his Consumption License.  If the kid does nothing but drop out and be a bum, well, then he doesn’t get to party until he’s 24.

Even over 24-year-olds, however, would have to get the license.  The Consumption License would also require its own safety course and registration.  People would get the objective facts about substances, the laws concerning them, instructions for safest use, awareness of addiction and information on treatment and rehabilitation.  People who abuse their consumption license can have it suspended or revoked.  We’d have reliable statistics as to how many people are consuming substances.  The license could have a renewal fee and generate money for the state that would go toward treatment programs.

The added benefit is a bit of coercion for students to stay in school and graduates to go to college or work.  Substance use wouldn’t be seen as a “rite of passage” that comes along automatically at a certain age, but rather as a privilege that is only extended to repsonsible, educated adults.  For those who choose not to use, they don’t have to be taxed to care for the substance users; the users’ Consumption Licenses take care of that.

I can think of all manner of logistical hurdles and political difficulties in instituting such a system, but it makes more sense than just declaring that at a certain age, a human is responsible enough to smoke, drink, and toke.