ATTORNEY GENERAL MISREPRESENTED THE FACTS ABOUT MARIJUANA USE

Attorney General David Marquez's recent commentary ("Opportunity to
Toughen Drug Laws," Voice of the Times, Feb. 2) grossly misrepresents
the data on marijuana use. Marquez writes, "Studies show (children)
often get (marijuana) at home, or at a friend's home," implying kids
get it from their parents. In fact, no studies indicate this. In
testimony last year, his office cited the U.S. government report "How
Youths Obtain Marijuana," which simply says if youths obtained
marijuana for free, they "obtained it ... inside a home, apartment,
or dorm," but if they paid for the marijuana, they more likely
obtained it "in a public building, outside in a public area, inside a
school building, or outside on school property."

Marquez also claims, "Marijuana was found in the urine of nearly 70
percent of adult male domestic violence abusers arrested in
Anchorage, but only 5 percent of men arrested for other crimes. ...
(T)here must be a reason why so many more domestic violence abusers
use marijuana compared to other criminals." This is nonsense.
Researchers at UAA's Justice Center note "the consistency in rates of
marijuana detection across categories of charges (approximately 45
percent of offenders across all offense types)." The percentage for
domestic violence arrestees was lower than for assault or robbery
arrestees, and the percentage for all violent offenses was slightly
lower than property and other offenses.

Sadly, these examples are just part of a pattern of distortion of the
facts about marijuana by the attorney general's office.

- Tim Hinterberger, Ph.D.

Anchorage

Editor's note: The writer is chair of the Alaska Drug Policy Forum
and a past sponsor of an initiative to legalize marijuana.