Legalizing Marijuana May Not Change Much

[SmokeDog420]

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.

Complete Title: Legalizing Marijuana May Not Change Much, Researcher Says


Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Author: Ed Vogel, Review-Journal
Published: Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Copyright: 2004 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: letters@lvrj.com
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/