"Drug Czar" falsely blames 2010 increase in cannabis use among teens on medical marijuana

[RainDog]

despite the lack of logic in such a statement.

"Drug Czar" sez:

“If young people don’t really perceive that is dangerous or of any concern, it usually means there’ll be an uptick in the number of kids who are using. And sure enough, in 2009, that’s exactly what we did see,” Kerlikowske told ABC News Radio. “We have been telling young people, particularly for the past couple years, that marijuana is medicine. So it shouldn’t be a great surprise to us that young people are now misperceiving the dangers or the risks around marijuana.”

To which Paul Armentano replies:

...The "Czar" (my quotes) is well aware that throughout this period of time, (since the introduction of medical marijuana laws in various states) youth-reported use of marijuana declined across the nation — including in the very same states that enacted medical cannabis access. You can see this year-by-year decline, as documented by the University of Michigan.

(a link to the pdf is available via this link: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/134069-drug-czar-blames-rising-teen-pot-use-on-medical-cannabis-laws-rather-than-on-the-administrations-own-failed-policies- )

(the site for this info is here: http://monitoringthefuture.org/)

Others have publicized this decline too. A comprehensive review of the data was compiled by the Marijuana Policy Project in 2008. They concluded: “More than a decade after the passage of the nation’s first state medical marijuana law, California’s Prop. 215, a considerable body of data shows that no state with a medical marijuana law has experienced an increase in youth marijuana use since its law’s enactment. All states have reported overall decreases – exceeding 50 percent in some age groups – strongly suggesting that the enactment of state medical marijuana laws does not increase marijuana use.”

Investigators at the Texas A&M Health Science Center also assessed whether the passage of medical cannabis laws encourages greater recreational use. They too found, definitively, that it does not. “Our results indicate that the introduction of medical cannabis laws was not associated with an increase in cannabis use among either arrestees or emergency department patients in cities and metropolitan areas located in four states in the USA (California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington),” researchers reported in the International Journal of Drug Policy. “Consistent with other studies of the liberalization of cannabis laws, medical cannabis laws do not appear to increase use of the drug.

Armentano goes on to note that the "Drug Czar" fails to mention that high school seniors, in the Michigan report, note the easily availability of marijuana. The "Drug Czar" tho, does acknowledge that it is harder for teens to get legal cigarettes and alcohol (than...? shhhhhhhhhhhh oh no, don't go there. don't go there, girlfriend.)

So AGAIN in a leap of illogic formerly found only in Lysenko's fever dream kumquat orgies of Stalin-era Russia, the "Drug Czar" does not make the association between illegality and availability for teens when evidence exists that regulating substances and selling them via things like liquor stores makes them harder for teens to get.

Just as the recent govt. report claimed there is no medical benefit to cannabis, despite research that indicates they are lying, the federal govt. now lies by omission, by refusing to note that legal products FOR ADULTS that are regulated to keep them available to adults but away from teens has made it more difficult, rather than easier, for those teens to access those drugs - and there is no reason to believe the situation would be any different for cannabis than it is for alcohol or cigarettes.



-- with condolences to the Obama administration for its loss of credibility on this issue.

Sincerely, The American People

[RKP5637]

1. I wish they would just focus on the really serious drugs that really F up people. Of course

the way they go about it is asinine.

[RainDog]

6. your wish sure sounds right to me n/t

[Angry Dragon]

2. Some facts I just googled

alcohol deaths per year
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_alcohol_related_deaths_occur_each_year


http://www.saferchoice.org/content/view/24/53/

[RainDog]

4. nice links!

thanks!

[SOS]

16. 600,000?

ALCOHOL-RELATED DEATHS SEEN UNDERREPORTED

"Researchers studying the deaths of 450 young Army veterans found that almost a third were alcohol-related, six times as many as were reflected on death certificates.

The study, reported in the current Journal of the American Medical Association, ''illustrates the important role alcohol plays in premature death and indicates the extent to which alcohol's role is underestimated if you use official cause-of-death data,'' said Dr. Daniel J. Pollock."

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/21/science/alcohol-related-deaths-seen-underreported.html

Anecdotal: I've known many people who died alcohol-related deaths and not one death was officially attributed to booze.

This drug czar is an idiot. People stopped believing that "marijuana is a dangerous drug" canard 40 years ago.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. More of the administration's right ward quest for fact free,

faith based decision making. It makes Obama look both fumbling and starkly bigoted when they attack States Medical marijuana laws while he declares that civil rights issues should be left up to the States.

[RainDog]

5. Few pols with national stature will tell the public the truth about this issue

and, as I've noted - Clinton was as bad about cannabis as Obama is - and, of course, there's Ashcroft going after Tommy Chong... and he probably wasn't even cynical about that move...

I do not understand what force has people at the federal level of power so mesmerized that they cannot tell the truth to the American people. The joke is that the American people are far ahead of those "elites" in high office on this issue and have been for a while.

I don't think they're universally ignorant - so it must be politics or money that make is possible to justify putting people in jail for something that is less harmful than alcohol.

[RKP5637]

7. Yep, I can just imagine how interracial marriage would work today if

some states had their way back in the 60's. BTW- can't the marijuana just be prayed away!

[theaocp]

8. I wonder why the Fedz continue to grow and give MMJ to patients

right now? It must be because they're just hypocrites and liars. I wonder if Mr. Obama knows what his DOJ is up to. Probably not.

[saras]

9. Cui bono. Follow the money. It's too stupid a set of lies to serve any other purpose

[RainDog]

10. ...but it's in the news now to counteract the calls to end the WoD

that were all over the news last month with the anniversary of that giant sucking fail.

[Politicalboi]

11. Why should they look at facts?

They've never done that before, so why start now. If I had a kid, I would much rather see them smoke weed than smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol. I would even supply it if need be.

[sixmile]

12. Whoa! Young people want to get high?

When did THIS start?!

[RainDog]

14. dunno

probably the first time some kid spun around in circles and fell to the ground giggling.

[Harry J Asslinger]

13. My Dear Czar

The average youth, being keenly aware that you and your colleagues overteem with shit, laughs at your every admonition and finds that their joint is all the sweeter because of them.

[Uncle Joe]

15. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Raindog and I share in your wish of condolences.