OUR VIEW: FOR THE KIDS?

Pot Petition Is Pilloried Out Of Fear, And Public Policy Debate Is Muddied

The Colorado state Board of Education is the latest voice to join the
chorus denouncing a petition drive to legalize marijuana as a medical
treatment. In a resolution earlier this month, the board cited the harmful
effects of pot smoking and rising drug use among students.

It won't be known until probably later this month whether the 85,000
signatures the petition's organizers turned in to the secretary of
state will pass muster and secure the proposal a place on the November
ballot. What's clear already is that a significant swath of the state
and federal political establishment is adamantly opposed. In some
cases that's perhaps predictable. Law enforcement, for example, is
leery about carving out exceptions to a drug war it has been fighting
for years.

Groups such as the Board of Education, however, have a less clear
stake. To hear some board members, they're worried about what kind of
a message legalizing pot - albeit, only by prescription, to ease pain
and nausea of cancer patients and others - would send kids.

"It would start to legitimize the use of an illegal drug," board
member Clair Orr said. "And once we start legitimizing illegal drugs,
what are kids going to think?"

The advisability of this proposal is another discussion for another
day, though it's useful to remember, as recently noted on these pages
by one of our readers, that all sorts of "illegal" drugs long have
been legal for prescription use, as is now proposed for pot.

What is troubling at this point in the debate, though, is the
reasoning that goes into public policy advocacy by some of our public
officials.

Much as in the debate over taxing and advertising tobacco, a group of
concerned public servants wants to restrict the behavior of consenting
adults - in this case, they'd even be supervised by a physician - in
the name of protecting children.

Even the education board's members seem to acknowledge that, under
this particular policy proposal to allow medical marijuana, the stuff
wouldn't be any likelier than it is now to wind up in kids' hands. The
concern expressed by those who wish to maintain the status quo is
simply that kids would get the wrong message.

Never mind the pivotal roles of parenthood and peer pressure in
determining kids' use of booze, drugs or tobacco. Never mind, as well,
that nobody's talking about loosening up the law to increase kids'
access to drugs.

There is strong, albeit debatable, evidence that marijuana could help
physicians significantly ease suffering. Whatever role the law should
play in that equation, since when is it the place of the criminal code
simply to send a message to our young? Isn't that parents' duty?

Checked-by: Patrick Henry