Marijuana Legalization Protects Our Children - Simple Logic

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Government funded studies show that over 50% of high school students will experiment with marijuana. Many parents who talk to their kids about marijuana know that it is very easy for them to obtain, much easier than alcohol - a drug regulated by the government.

If your child is likely to experiment with marijuana - partly because it is a teenage thing to do and partly because it is so easy to obtain, then shouldn't we consider ways to make it more difficult for kids to get marijuana? One of these ways is to regulate marijuana, taking it out of the black market and off the streets.

If kids had to go to a state-sanctioned store and show an ID, it might make it more difficult than going down to the corner or to the rough section of town to buy some marijuana. This is a common sense approach to limit easy access to marijuana by underage children. If we care about our kids, this strategy should be on the table for discussion.

Parents want to protect our kids and keep them safe. Government policies on marijuana put our kids at greater risk and here's why - since there is a good chance your child will experiment with marijuana, they will have to find it somewhere. The undeniable result of current prohibitionist policies is that marijuana will often be available from the same people who sell harder, more dangerous drugs like crack cocaine, heroin, speed and PCP, just to name a few. Therefore, government restrictions on marijuana put our children at much greater risk by pushing them to dangerous places with dangerous people.

Over 700,000 people are arrested each year for marijuana possession, including many of our own children. When a child is arrested they are taken to the police station holding cell while the arresting officer processes the arrest. If the holding area is crowded, your child could be taken to the local jail during processing. Guess what? Jails are very dangerous places for kids. Would you want your child in jail for a minor marijuana infraction for any reason? Again, our government's punitive policies on marijuana put young people in greater danger than using marijuana itself.

If government leaders are so concerned about children, why would they let such a widely used intoxicant (marijuana) be potentially subjected to alteration with dangerous substances? If the government regulated and controlled marijuana, it could ensure the safety and uniformity of the product just like they do for other food and drugs.

Finally, the Higher Education Act passed several years ago by Congress ensures that your child will not be eligible for federal student loans if he/she is convicted of any marijuana offense, no matter how small. Of course this counterproductive law falls most harshly on low-income families who cannot afford good lawyers and whose children need federal loans and a college education to raise their chances for a successful life.

You can learn more about marijuana and teens from the Drug Policy Alliance website: www.drugpolicyalliance.org/safetyfirst/. Or you can visit Change the Climate's page for more information. You can also visit our bulletin board to participate in discussions about kids, marijuana and other issues.

To learn more about the Higher Education Act and how young people are organizing to oppose government drug policies visit Students for a Sensible Drug Policy at www.ssdp.org.