Reefer Madness

MEDI-POT HYSTERIA UNFOUNDED

Despite hysterical claims that the legalization of medicinal
marijuana for use by the seriously ill would somehow kick-start a
juggernaut of seemingly state-sanctioned drug use and abuse - a
tired-ass hand-wringing worry brought, primarily, by your drug war
pals at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy,
starting with Nineties czar Barry McCaffrey - it appears that, a
decade after California voters passed the nation's first medi-pot
law, the sky has not fallen.

In fact, according to a report released last month by the Marijuana
Policy Project, a review of medi-pot progress on the 10th anniversary
of California's 1996 passage of Proposition 215, it appears that teen
pot use in many medi-pot states has remained steady or has actually
fallen, that public support for medi-pot laws has remained steady or
increased, and that the laws haven't done anything to hinder the
ability of law enforcers to bust non-medi-mari tokers.

In other words, it appears that McCaffrey's dire pot-hopped
predictions - including his over-the-top promise that legalized
medi-mari would lead to "increased drug abuse in every category" -
were just plain-ass wrong.

According to the MPP report, instead of sending a message to teens
that pot use is just fine, thank you very much, teen marijuana use in
California has actually been on the decline since 1996; the most
recent California Student Survey, the state's adolescent drug-use
tracking tool, revealed that only 18.7% of ninth graders reported
having used pot within the past six months, the lowest level in more
than 10 years. Meanwhile, marijuana arrests in California have
remained steady, notes MPP; in 2004, the most recent year for which
complete statistics were available, some 61,000 people were arrested
on pot-related charges, according to state Department of Justice
statistics. And despite the continued official inclination to
discredit medi-pot laws as nothing more than a backdoor attempt to
legalize pot for all, public support for legalized medicinal
marijuana has solidified: A national Gallup Poll released in November
2005 reported that 78% support making marijuana legal "for doctors to
prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering" - positional support
that would, in fact, broaden medi-mari protections. Because marijuana
is considered a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act,
doctors are actually forbidden to prescribe it; instead, medi-mari
users do so only with a doctor's recommendation. (The entire report
can be found online at www.mpp.org.)

(Get Reefer online: In order to keep you up-to-date on the insanity
of the war on drugs, "Weed Watch," your source for drug war and drug
policy news, has a new name - "Reefer Madness" - and an expanded
online presence. Check out the continually updated Reefer blog at
austinchronicle.com/reefer.)