It's Time to Clear the Smoke Surrounding Mairjuana

DON'T LEGALIZE POT

The Los Angeles City Council's vote last week to shut hundreds of
so-called medical marijuana dispensaries was a welcome move, but the
larger battle over pot has just begun.

Across the country, lawmakers and residents of cash-strapped states
are edging ever closer to legalizing -- and taxing -- marijuana. In
California, the first state in the nation to pass a medical marijuana
law, backers of an initiative to legalize the drug expect to gather
enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot. And
a Field Poll last year showed more than half of California voters
would support such a move.

Two beliefs drive this push to make pot legal: that new tax revenue
will stave off deeper budget cuts and that marijuana is a relatively
benign drug. Neither is true.

Legalization almost certainly would bring with it additional
substance abuse in the state, and the long-term public costs
associated with that would vastly exceed the relatively modest amount
of new revenue legal weed might bring in. Baby boomers who hazily
recall their own experimentation with marijuana often are stunned to
learn that the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol --or THC, marijuana's
primary psychoactive substance -- in domestic sinsemilla has
quadrupled since the late 1970s.

According to Dr. Sheila Kar, clinical chief of cardiology at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (and a member of the D.A.R.E America
board of directors), marijuana has serious short- and long-term
health consequences. It has been shown to cause an immediate rise in
the heartbeat by 20 to 30 beats per minute along with an increase in
blood pressure, thus increasing the workload of the heart. Marijuana
is an irritant to the lungs and contains proportionally more
carcinogens than tobacco smoke. It is associated with increased
incidence of cancer of the head and neck area and lungs. It works on
the brain, causing short- and long-term memory loss and impairing
judgment, and it affects the sensations of taste and smell. One of
its more pernicious effects is that it reduces inhibitions and can
lead a person under its influence to try even more harmful substances.

In other words, there's a reason the federal government classifies
marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug with a high potential for abuse. It is
the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States, and more
teens are in treatment for marijuana addiction than for alcohol or
any other drug. Do we really want this habit-forming drug easier to
get, particularly as the nation has made significant strides in
reducing illegal drug use?

Between 1979 and 2007, the rate of illegal drug use fell by half.
Programs such as D.A.R.E. taught schoolchildren the facts about
drugs, alcohol and tobacco and bolstered their critical thinking and
decision-making skills so they can do more than just say no. In
conjunction with Penn State University, the new D.A.R.E. middle
school curriculum has been vetted and proved effective at reducing
drug use. In recent years, D.A.R.E. has added units on prescription
and over-the-counter medications, abuse of which is growing among
teens - another reminder, along with abuse of alcohol, that just
because something is legal, it doesn't necessarily reduce the risk of abuse.

And that abuse costs all of us. The National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse, or CASA, at Columbia University estimated last year
that substance abuse and addiction cost federal, state and local
governments $467.7 billion in 2005. Break out federal spending on
substance abuse and addiction as its own budget item and it would
rank near the top with defense, Social Security and Medicare.

This is where supporters of legalization like to say that
decriminalizing marijuana would free up law enforcement resources and
provide a tax base to fund prevention and treatment. In fact, CASA
estimates just 13 percent of the combined state and federal
substance-abuse costs are attributable to the justice system - a
figure that also includes family court, driving under the influence
and hard-core drug dealing. The bulk of the costs stem from direct
health-care expenses. Imagine what a dent we could make in reducing
healthcare costs if we prevented more drug and alcohol abuse.

The California Board of Equalization estimates that taxing marijuana
sales the way alcohol and cigarettes are taxed could add $1.34
billion a year to state coffers. But for every dollar in state and
federal alcohol and tobacco taxes that is collected, CASA estimates
government spends $8.95 to clean up the often tragic consequences of
addiction, driving under the influence, domestic abuse or illness.
That's right: A dollar coming in; $8.95 going out. Suddenly, that
$1.34 billion doesn't seem like much, particularly when one considers
that it comes with significantly wider access to a habit-forming drug
that has been shown time and again to be a gateway to even more
dangerous drugs.

Despite the gains of the past two decades, substance abuse remains a
serious drag on the health, productivity and safety of our nation.
There is a connection between marijuana and fiscal solvency, but
supporters of legalization have it backward. Reducing, not expanding,
marijuana use can save billions. It's time to clear the smoke.