LEGALIZING MARIJUANA MAY NOT CHANGE MUCH, RESEARCHER SAYS

CARSON CITY -- The leading drug use researcher in the Netherlands
predicts there will be little change in Nevada drug use, particularly
by teenagers, if citizens support the latest initiative to legalize
marijuana.

"My personal view is that drug policies and the legal status of
marijuana is not a very important indicator of the use levels of
marijuana in a population," said Peter Cohen in a telephone interview
from Amsterdam. "It would neither increase nor reduce levels. The
determinants for marijuana use are complex. They have to do with
fashion, culture and economics."

Since 1976, authorities in the Netherlands have tolerated the sale of
small amounts of marijuana. Pot can be purchased in about 850 coffee
houses. The houses hold an annual Cannabis Cup competition to
determine who grows the finest marijuana in the world.

In numerous writings and speeches over the years, Cohen has emphasized
that marijuana use has ebbed and flowed with social events, such as
the Vietnam anti-war movement.

He and others contend many teenagers try marijuana out of peer
pressure and youthful rebellion, smoke for a few years and then quit.

Their research has found the actual number of regular marijuana users
is about 2.5 percent of the Netherlands' population over age 12,
compared with 5 percent in the United States.

Although Americans use marijuana and harder drugs at much higher
percentages than people in the Netherlands, Europeans use alcohol and
tobacco more frequently than Americans, according to studies.

"Alcohol use patterns vary tremendously between countries, periods and
cultures, even with similar access rules," as does marijuana use,
according to Cohen.

He added that arguments that laws will control the flow of marijuana
are "very useful for politicians," but have little to do with the
actual use of the drug.

Cohen's view, that legalization minimally impacts usage rates, is at
odds with arguments being advanced in Nevada by supporters and
opponents of the new marijuana initiative circulated by the Committee
to Regulate and Control Marijuana.

The committee has launched a petition drive in Nevada to put a
constitutional amendment on the November ballot to legalize the use of
an ounce or less of marijuana in private by people over 21. It needs
to collect 51,234 valid signatures by June 15 to place the initiative
before voters. Citizens would have to approve the ballot question this
fall and again in 2006 to amend the constitution.

Marijuana would remain illegal under federal law, and moves to
legalize it in Nevada could face federal challenges.

The parent organization of the Nevada pro-marijuana committee has been
running advertisements plugging its argument that legalization will
reduce teen marijuana use. They rely partly on Dutch drug statistics
compiled by Cohen and his colleagues at the Centre for Drug Research
at the University of Amsterdam. He headed the program until retiring
March 1, but remains a consultant.

The ads point out 67 percent of high school seniors in Nevada have
used marijuana, compared with only 28 percent in the Netherlands.
However, the figure from the Netherlands reflects use by 16- to
19-year-olds.

A recent Review-Journal poll found Nevadans would reject the new
initiative by a margin of 5 percentage points. Jennifer Knight, the
spokeswoman for the pro-marijuana committee, was pleased by the
results saying they reflect a dramatic shift from a vote in the
November 2002 election.

That year, residents resoundingly rejected a proposal to allow adults
to possess as much as three ounces of marijuana. Both that initiative
and the current one have been financed by the Marijuana Policy Project
of Washington, D.C.

Knight maintains supporters learned from the defeat and added
safeguards to the new initiative that will keep marijuana out of the
hands of youths and prevent people from driving under the drug's influence.

If voters back legal marijuana, the state becomes responsible for the
cultivation and sale of the drug to adults. Knight predicts the number
of illegal dealers would drop because of the availability. Teens,
therefore, would be less likely to acquire drugs.

But Clark County District Attorney David Roger finds the reasoning
specious. He contends if marijuana is legalized for adults, it follows
more teenagers would get the drug. They would acquire it from
sympathetic adults.

"Look what happens now with alcohol," Roger said. "Teenagers stand
outside convenience stores and wait for an adult who will buy beer for
them."

Roger said that marijuana use by teens in the Netherlands has tripled
during the era of essentially legal pot and fears the same thing could
happen in Nevada.

The Netherlands' Trimbos Research Institute found marijuana use by 12-
to 18-year-olds actually nearly quadrupled from 1988 to 1996, from 3
percent to 11 percent. In 1999, that figure fell to 9 percent.

Before 1995, marijuana could be sold in Netherlands' coffee houses to
teens as young as 16. That year the minimum age limit was raised to
18. The amount of marijuana that could be sold to a patron also was
reduced to five grams, instead of 30 grams. There are 28 grams in an
ounce.

Cohen said one third of Dutch teens buy their marijuana at coffee
shops. The age for entrance to coffee shops was increased because of
complaints from other European countries, particularly France, that
they were corrupting youth.

But Cohen speculated teen use in the Netherlands might have increased
in the 1990s even if there had been no coffee houses. Use climbed in
other countries during that decade.

"Factors other than the accessibility of marijuana are very
important," he said.

Even if use has increased in the Netherlands, Knight said, surveys
show the war on drugs in the United States is not working,
particularly in Nevada.

"I would sincerely doubt any statistic shows Dutch teenage use is less
compared to us," she said. "You can twist statistics anyway you want,
but we are always higher."

Knight added the fact that 67 percent of Nevada high school seniors
have used marijuana is a "scary statistic."

"It means that many are exposed to the illicit drug world," Knight
said. "No parent wants their kid to smoke pot."

In commercials that cite the two-thirds figure, the Marijuana Policy
Project relies on a finding made in 2001 by the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

That finding, however, is more extreme than the drug use figures
compiled every two years by the Nevada Department of Education.

In its latest youth behavior risk survey, released in December, the
state found 47 percent of Nevada high school students had used
marijuana at least once. Twenty-two percent had used the drug in the
previous month.

Those figures represent a decline in use by Nevada youths since the
previous survey in 2001. That year 50 percent of high school students
said they had tried marijuana, while 27 percent had used it in the
last month.