One of the biggest arguments against marijuana legalization is falling apart

[Warren Stupidity]

America's high school students are using drugs and alcohol at or near the lowest levels on record, according to federal data released Wednesday. The 2015 Monitoring the Future Survey, conducted by the University of Michigan and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) since 1975, found that past-year use of alcohol and illicit drugs other than marijuana continued their two-decade-long decline among America's 8th- , 10th- and 12th-graders.

Teen marijuana use has fallen slightly over the past five years, at a time when four states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana and 23 others allow medical use.
...
The immediacy of the data makes the survey particularly useful for understanding how the national conversation on marijuana legalization is affecting teen pot use, if at all. This, after all, is a primary concern of legalization opponents. Rep. Andy Harris (R.-Md.) summed up this mind-set during a speech at the Heritage Foundation last year when he said that "relaxing [marijuana] laws clearly leads to more teenage drug use. It should be intuitively obvious to everyone that if you legalize marijuana for adults, more children will use marijuana because the message that it's dangerous will be blunted."
...
There's a paradox in these numbers: The data show that the percentage of teenagers who see a great risk of harm in using pot is at record lows this year, according to the survey. With that sort of decline, you'd typically expect to see a concomitant rise in use, lead investigator Lloyd Johnston said in an interview. But that's not happening.

Washington Post

[droidamus2]

1. They will never learn

Marijuana is readily available to both adults and teens now so legalization would have little effect on the usage of those groups. In countries like Portugal that have decriminalized/legalized drugs there has ultimately been a decline in consumption of drugs as a whole. The idea that teens buy into the government propaganda that marijuana is harmful is ridiculous on its face so why would 'changing' the message make any difference. I actually think, my opinion only, that making marijuana legal may make it less attractive as a 'sign of rebellion' and lead to less use among teens.

[TheSarcastinator]

2. Rep. Harris, Logical Fallacies ALWAYS seem " intuitively obvious".

That's how faulty logic works. You've done nothing but repeat a bogus slippery slope fallacy that has already been deeply and widely debunked by both common anecdote and well-calculated, peer-reviewed statistical fact.

[libdem4life]

3. Welcome to DU...great handle! Kind of like where many get their opinions...in the mirror.

[Jerry442]

4. Maybe when we stop spreading bogus "marijuana is deadly" stories...

...we can get more traction on getting the word out about drugs that are exactly as bad as authorities say they are.

[niyad]

5. thanks. going to send this to various people (who should really know better) who are spouting

the "wide-spread and increasing use" nonsense. oh, with the addition of how many teens are ending up in the er because of marijuana overdoses.

[mhatrw]

6. The reason I smoked weed in HS is because it was easier to get than alcohol was.

And that was way back when the drinking age was 18 and getting caught with pot could land you in jail.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. tobacco is proven to cause cancer...

I fixed it for you.

Currently there is no evidence that pot causes cancer of any sort.

The suggestion is to STOP CRIMINALIZING the use and sale of marijuana. It is not a harmful recreational drug, in fact compared to other legal recreational drugs it is basically benign. If there are health hazards (none currently established) then of course all sales should be accompanied with appropriate warnings. How about it? Keep incarcerating people for pot, or let adults make an informed decision on their own?

[LiberalAndProud]

10. The emphasis is mine. The source is the NIH.

Effects of marijuana smoking on the lung.
Tashkin DP1.
Author information
Abstract

Regular smoking of marijuana by itself causes visible and microscopic injury to the large airways that is consistently associated with an increased likelihood of symptoms of chronic bronchitis that subside after cessation of use. On the other hand, habitual use of marijuana alone does not appear to lead to significant abnormalities in lung function when assessed either cross-sectionally or longitudinally, except for possible increases in lung volumes and modest increases in airway resistance of unclear clinical significance. Therefore, no clear link to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been established. Although marijuana smoke contains a number of carcinogens and cocarcinogens, findings from a limited number of well-designed epidemiological studies do not suggest an increased risk for the development of either lung or upper airway cancer from light or moderate use, although evidence is mixed concerning possible carcinogenic risks of heavy, long-term use. Although regular marijuana smoking leads to bronchial epithelial ciliary loss and impairs the microbicidal function of alveolar macrophages, evidence is inconclusive regarding possible associated risks for lower respiratory tract infection. Several case reports have implicated marijuana smoking as an etiologic factor in pneumothorax/pneumomediastinum and bullous lung disease, although evidence of a possible causal link from epidemiologic studies is lacking. In summary, the accumulated weight of evidence implies far lower risks for pulmonary complications of even regular heavy use of marijuana compared with the grave pulmonary consequences of tobacco.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23802821

[uppityperson]

12. fwiw, the worst issue with smoking is not cancer but emphysema and other airway problems

Yes, cancer sucks majorly, but the primary problem resulting from smoking is not cancer but copd, emphysema, asthma, pneumonia, etc.

These all decrease quality of life and too often end in cause of death.