YOUTH FACTOR HEATS UP MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEBATE

The divisions between the pro- and anti-marijuana crowds at the state
House Judiciary Committee meeting were already clear last week when
the young man who described himself as a recovering heroin addict
approached the microphone.

As the man spoke about marijuana use leading kids to harder drugs and
fears that medical marijuana from dispensaries would make it into
teenage hands, the lines became even clearer.

Law enforcement officers and treatment counselors in the audience
looked on with interest, some nodding their heads. Several members of
the marijuana community snickered or exchanged incredulous whispers
during the testimony.

In the debate over Colorado's medical-marijuana system, there is no
issue that is as sharply divisive as the system's impact on young people.

To many members of the law enforcement community, the growth of the
state's medical-marijuana industry is a plague that threatens to
increase marijuana use of all kinds among teens and young adults -
with disastrous results for the state.

"The revenue generated from the marijuana industry," state Attorney
General John Suthers wrote to lawmakers in a letter opposing a bill to
regulate dispensaries, "will not cover the societal costs we will all
incur."

To many members of the marijuana community, statements like that
amount to fearmongering. Dispensary owners say they resent the
implication that they are indifferent to the well-being of young
people. Marijuana-legalization activists say law enforcement officials
are inflating the drug's dangers.

"Let's teach our kids to be realistic," said Bob Melamede, a
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs biology professor and
marijuana activist. "Let's teach our kids that marijuana has huge benefits."

The division has grown wider as both sides produce studies appearing
to back their positions.

Delbert Elliott, a University of Colorado at Boulder sociology
professor, said the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future"
study has shown that teenage marijuana use increases when perceptions
about the drug's dangers decrease.

Elliott, along with several addiction counselors, say they fear
Colorado's medical-marijuana system will bring such a dynamic to the
state.

"I think we are loosing an addictive drug into our society, and we are
not exercising the controls that we know from bitter experience should
be used," said Thomas Crowley, a psychiatry professor at the
University of Colorado Denver's Anschutz Medical Campus.

Melamede counters that a study by the pro-legalization Marijuana
Policy Project showed teen marijuana use declined in medical-marijuana
states. He argues the more medical marijuana becomes legitimized, the
less marijuana becomes an outlet for rebellion.

"Children are not turned on by the thought of acting like sick old
people," Melamede said.

Josh Stanley, the owner of the Peace in Medicine dispensary in Denver,
says dispensaries with strict inventory controls will limit the amount
of illegal marijuana available.

Crowley said there's no way to control what happens to marijuana once
it leaves the dispensary.

Since Colorado's medical-marijuana boom is still so new, there is
little data about its impact on young people.

People under 21 make up a small percentage of the state's
medical-marijuana registry - about 3 percent for applications received
through the end of September, according to state health department
statistics. People under 25 make up about 15 percent. (More recent
figures are not available because the health department is backlogged
in processing applications).

Officials for a number of public school districts and universities say
they have seen few students with medical-marijuana cards.

But Matthew Tomatz, a substance-abuse counseling specialist at the
University of Colorado at Boulder, said he has seen more patients with
cards.

"For students who do have a medical card, I find that it legitimizes
the marijuana use so that they are less able to explore its impact on
their lives," Tomatz said.

But - in a nod to the ambiguity of the issue - he added that he sees
only students who are having problems.