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POINT / COUNTERPOINT: MARIJUANA
No logical reason to punish adults for using marijuana over alcohol
10-21-06|rockymountainnews.com|Mason Tvert

Boo!

That's a preview of the strongest argument opponents of Amendment 44 - the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative - will put forth in the last two weeks of the campaign.

Don't expect an open and honest discussion about the merits of making marijuana possession legal for adults. Instead, expect every possible scare tactic related to children you can imagine. Before our opponents are done, you will think we are trying to make marijuana part of the free lunch program at elementary schools.

And why are our opponents hiding behind children? Perhaps it is because there is no logical reason to punish adults for making the rational choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol. Here are just a few reasons why:

• Alcohol is deadly; marijuana is not. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 20,000 Americans die every year as the direct result of alcohol consumption. The number for marijuana is zero. In addition, alcohol overdose deaths are not just possible, but an all-too-frequent occurrence in Colorado, as the on-campus deaths of students like Samantha Spady and Gordy Bailey have made tragically clear. Marijuana, on the other hand, has never caused an overdose death.

• Alcohol increases the likelihood of violent behavior; marijuana does not. This is not a surprising statement to individuals who have been around users of each substance. But it is also backed up with statistics. For example, the U.S. Department of Justice has reported the following about crime in the United States: "Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been a factor. Among spouse victims, three out of four incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had been drinking." Every objective study has concluded that marijuana use does not contribute to violent or aggressive behavior.

• Alcohol is especially problematic on college campuses. Drinking by college students, ages 18 to 24, contributes to an estimated 1,400 student deaths, 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assaults or date rapes each year, according to a 2002 study commissioned by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Task Force on College Drinking.

While these numbers are staggering, some statistics are even more powerful when conveyed as percentages.

For example, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health College found that nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of all college female rape victims experienced rape while under the influence of alcohol.

Our opponents, including the top elected officials in the state, will completely ignore these facts and recklessly defend a system designed to punish people for using marijuana, which only pushes more people toward alcohol.

To justify this irrational policy, our opponents will claim they are protecting our kids. In doing so, however, they ignore even more statistics.

Marijuana is already "universally available" to teens. Our opponents make it seem as if marijuana prohibition is needed to keep marijuana away from kids. Yet today, 86 percent of high school seniors say it is "very easy" or "fairly easy" to get marijuana. Moreover, the authors of the Monitoring the Future report on teen substance use reported, "Marijuana has been almost universally available to American high school seniors over at least the past 30 years."

Anti-marijuana propaganda is pushing kids toward a more dangerous drug. As a result of anti-marijuana propaganda, 12- to 17-year-old Americans believe smoking marijuana once or twice a week is more dangerous than having five or more drinks at a time once or twice a week, according to a federal government survey. Yet binge drinking can kill these kids in one night; marijuana cannot.

For better or worse, alcohol and marijuana are a permanent part of our society. Young people determined to use alcohol will probably find alcohol, and those determined to use marijuana will probably find marijuana. Nevertheless, reducing teen use of either substance requires honest and open conversations with our kids.

Pushing adults (with our laws) and kids (with misinformation) toward alcohol instead of marijuana is not a solution to the problem. Rather, it is making societal problems worse.

Don't let our opponents scare you into maintaining the current, failed system. Help reduce alcohol-related harms and make Colorado safer by voting yes on Amendment 44.

Mason Tvert is the campaign director for Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and the lead proponent of Amendment 44.

 

Buzzby

I've been out in Denver for 10 days working for the SAFER campaign. The outlook here is encouraging. Most of the people I talk to while I'm passing out leaflets, window stickers, and tree lawn signs are pretty Libertarian about marijuana use: they either like it or think it's nobody's business what individuals want to put into their bodies.

Admittedly I'm in Colorado's biggest urban area and the attitude here may be more liberal than in the hinterlands, but this is also where the majority of the voters live. If this passes I'll be proud to tell my grandchildren that I contributed to this historic event.

The efforts by the ONDCP to fool people into thinking that marijuana is a dangerous drug is making people angry and having an effect opposite to that which the drug czar desires. Colorado citizens are pissed at the efforts of the federal government, using their tax dollars, to interfere with what is purely a state initiative.

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420godfather

... , rock on Mr. Buzzby, rock on!!!

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......420gf......

maverick7

What website can I go to in order to vote on Amendment 44??? Great postings by the way! Anne O'Hara

JnEverett

In order to vote on an amendment you have to be a registered voter for in that region.
If you are a registered voter in that region you will vote on it in the upcoming election at your designated polling place.

If you are not in that region you can help to get the word out....look at websites such as NORML.
Be a legalization activist in whatever ways you can, including responsible usage.

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Buzzby

Website? Amendment 44 is not an online survey. It's on the Colorado state ballot. Election day is November 7.

If you are a Colorado resident and are registered to vote, please do so. If you're not already registered, it's too late for this election. Registration forms must be submitted at least 29 days before the election.

Colorado voter registration form