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February 21, 2012–Pictured here is a Dutch shop where one can buy bulbs to grow tulips — or Starter Kits to grow cannabis, just one example of the kinds of products a commercial marijuana industry produces. If certain states in the US legalize marijuana this fall, we can learn from the Dutch experience ways to regulate a marijuana industry that will protect children.
Although marijuana is not legal in Holland, its government began tolerating marijuana use years ago, giving rise to Nederwiet, locally grown marijuana, sold in coffee shops. Then, the levels of THC, marijuana’s major psychoactive component, in Nederweit were about 8 percent, some four times US marijuana levels. Over time, enterprising Dutch growers learned to cultivate marijuana with even higher THC levels, some as high as 30 percent.
About 80 percent of Nederweit sold in Dutch coffee shops until recently had THC levels of 15 to 18 percent. The Dutch mental health agency, the Trimbos Institute, says these levels increase the risk of addiction and psychotic disorders, especially if use begins at young ages. So last fall, the Dutch government reclassified high THC-level marijuana and banned it from being sold in coffee shops (shops can still sell marijuana with THC levels “lower” than 15 percent).
The average THC content in US marijuana in 1972 was 1.5 percent. (Notably, most information about marijuana effects has come from studies using government-grown marijuana with 2 percent THC.) Today’s average THC levels are higher, ranging from 6 percent to 11 percent. So if marijuana is legalized here, one provision needed is specific THC limits on commercial marijuana.
Other questions the Dutch are struggling with, years after the fact, include 1) how close to schools can coffee shops be located and 2) how can the government discourage tourists from buying marijuana to take back home where it is illegal. We don’t have to wait for these kinds of problems to surface afterwards as the Dutch have done. Instead, we can anticipate such questions beforehand, learning from the Dutch and other nations that have relaxed their drug laws, and be ready with provisions to protect children if marijuana is legalized in the US.
February 15, 2012 – The Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act establishes a new state government agency to regulate medical marijuana cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale. Although its provisions apply to medical marijuana, they establish a commercial system to produce and sell the drug at medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state on the basis of at least one dispensary for every 50,000 citizens. Because doctors can recommend medical marijuana for use by children, no age limits prohibit possession, use, or sale to children and adolescents in this initiative, which also reduces penalties for possession and use of nonmedical marijuana for all ages. Young people under age 18 who possess an ounce or less of nonmedical marijuana on school grounds only are subject to a fine of up to $250 for the first offense, and for a second and all subsequent offenses, a fine of up to $500 and/or up to 10 days in a juvenile facility. Presumably, young people with medical marijuana on school grounds face no restrictions. The California Secretary of State cleared the initiative for circulation yesterday. Proponents have until July 13 to collect slightly more than 500,000 signatures to get the initiative on the state’s 2012 ballot. Click here for summaries and full text of this and all active legalization initiatives pending in seven states.
February 10, 2012–Drivers who consume cannabis within three hours of driving are nearly twice as likely to cause a vehicle collision as those who are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, finds a new study published in the British Medical Journal. We are indebted to Join Together for bringing this study to the attention of its readers.
These findings make it all the more important for But What about the Children’s Provision Number 8 to be included in any law that legalizes marijuana for recreational use. The provision calls for a ban on driving with marijuana in the systems of drivers or passengers.
January 30, 2012—A review of alcohol and drug use surveys in states where voters may legalize marijuana this November shows young people’s alcohol use is about double their marijuana use. Why? Alcohol is legal, widely distributed, and widely sold. Marijuana is not. Worse, the number of young people who initiate use at age 14 or younger is two to three times greater for alcohol than marijuana. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health finds that children who begin using marijuana at such young ages are six times more likely to become addicted to marijuana than those who start in their 20s.
Most of the proposed legalization initiatives are designed to regulate marijuana like alcohol. But data clearly show an age limit will not prevent underage marijuana use any more that the drinking age prevents underage alcohol use. Most initiatives charge legislators with developing regulations to govern the production and sale of legalized marijuana. It will be up to them to find ways to prevent a commercial marijuana industry from targeting children and adolescents as customers, like the alcohol industry does. National Families in Action (NFIA) has proposed 12 provisions to achieve this goal. Most are designed to force producers, distributors, and retail stores to self-regulate by imposing industry-wide penalties if any one of them gives or sells marijuana to young people.
Proponents insist that legalization will make it harder for kids to get pot. Those who understand economics say otherwise. RAND, for example, estimates that if California legalizes marijuana its price will fall by 80 percent and use will double. RAND estimates that if marijuana were regulated like alcohol, California would have 8,000 marijuana retail outlets—four times the number of Starbuck’s in the state.
Legalization initiatives are working their way to the 2012 ballots in California, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington. Citizens who care about children should insist that state legislators include NFIA’s provisions in any regulations they write to govern legal pot. Nine months remain to carry this message to legislators.
January 19, 2012
Nebraska
Nebraska Proposition 19
Status: Currently collecting signatures
Click here to read information about proponents and summaries and full text of each initiative.
January 17, 2012–Proponents in the following states have filed ballot initiatives with officials to ask voters to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the 2012 election. No initiative has yet reached the ballot. Proponents of Colorado’s Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act and Washington’s Measure 502 have turned in more signatures than required and await their verification. These two measures will almost certainly reach the 2012 ballot; the others may or may not. Click here to read information about proponents and summaries and full text of each initiative.
The Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative 2012
Status: Currently collecting signatures
The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012
Status: Currently collecting signatures
The Marijuana Penalties Act of 21012
Status: Currently collecting signatures
The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012
Status: Currently collecting signatures
The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012
Status: Awaiting verification of 160,000 signatures
Michigan Ballot Initiative to End Marijuana Prohibition
Status: Awaiting approval of initiative language and preparing to collect signatures
Constitutional Amendment to Article IV
Status: Cleared for Circulation
The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act of 2012
Status: Currently collecting signatures
Washington State Initiative Measure 502
Status: Awaiting verification of 354,607 signatures
Washington State Safe Cannabis Act of 2012
Status: Submitted 01/06/12
Washington State Initiative Measure No. 492
Status: Currently collecting signatures
Washington State Initiative Measure 505
Status: Currently collecting signatures
December 16, 2011–Yet another group of proponents has filed a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California, marking the fourth such measure working its way towards the 2012 ballot. The California Cannabis Hemp and Health Act of 2012 joins The Regulate Marijuana like Wine Act of 2012, The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012, and The Marijuana Penalties Act of 2012 in a race to see if any can collect enough signatures to be placed on next November’s ballot. This one has most of the same features as the others, and then some. It aims to ride in on the coattails of its rivals by specifying that all of its provisions not included in a winning initiative will automatically become law in the event that it fails and another succeeds.
It charges the California legislature with developing provisions to regulate legal pot like beer and wine, but restricts the cost of a license to grow, distribute, or sell marijuana to a maximum of $1,000. It limits the amount of taxes the legislature may impose to $10 per ounce of dried flowers or $2 per gram of “cannabis concentrates.” It sets a legal age limit of 21. It prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from working with their federal counterparts to enforce federal law in California. It calls for the immediate release of all people in the state serving a jail or prison sentence for a marijuana offense and for the expungement of all criminal records. And it makes it a misdemeanor, subject to maximum fines and imprisonment, for any person to “threaten the enjoyment of these provisions.”
The other three initiatives have been cleared for signature collection; this one waits for the state attorney general to give it an official title and to summarize its provisions for the ballot, the step needed to clear it for signature collection. Depending on when they were filed, all four initiatives must collect some 500,000 signatures from voters by next March or April to be placed on the ballot.
More information about these initiatives can be found on their respective websites:
October 10, 2011–We reported on May 25, 2011, that proponents filed The Regulate Marijuana like Wine Act of 2012 and on August 29, 2011 that another group filed The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 with California’s attorney general. Since then, both initiatives have been withdrawn, rewritten, and refiled. A third measure, The Marijuana Penalties Act of 2012, was filed September 15.
Californians wishing to sponsor an initiative must first request that the attorney general write a title and brief description of it before they can collect signatures to place it on the ballot.
To complicate matters, the state legislature decriminalized marijuana through a bill that became effective January 1, 2011. Before then, possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, enough to make 40 to 60 marijuana cigarettes, was a misdemeanor with no possible jail sentence and a $100 fine.
The new law reduced the misdemeanor to an infraction; the fine remains the same, $100. The law sets no age limit except for those under age 18 who bring an ounce or less of marijuana to school. Off school grounds, the only sanction California children and teenagers face for using marijuana is the threat of a fine or ticket, the same penalty for speeding or littering. No trial is required. The courts’ ability to use the misdemeanor law to intervene in youthful marijuana use and mandate teens into counseling or treatment no longer exists.
Enter Bill Zimmerman, who filed The Marijuana Penalties Act of 2012 last month. Mr. Zimmerman is the man who led the first Soros-funded Proposition 215, sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance, to legalize marijuana as medicine in 1996. His company says, “Between 1996 and 2008, working with the Drug Policy Alliance, Bill managed 17 ballot initiatives in 10 states that attempted to reform various aspects of our nation’s failed drug laws. Thirteen of the 17 were victorious.”
The Marijuana Penalties Act of 2012 seeks to expand the amount of marijuana Californians may possess from one ounce to two ounces, punishable only by a fine of $250 or community service. This initiative does impose an age limit, sort of. Possession of a second ounce of marijuana for anyone under age 21 would be a changed back to a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for up to six months or a fine of up to $500 or both. The initiative specifically exempts from this provisions those under age 21 who possess an ounce or less.
The new version of The Regulate Marijuana like Wine Act of 2012 has jettisoned its age limit for use altogether. Anyone under age 21 may possess up to an ounce of marijuana and may gift, share, distribute, sell, store, and transport that amount. Those under age 21 who do any of these things with more than an ounce commit an infraction subject to a fine of up to $2,500. Marijuana may be sold only to people age 21 or older.
This initiative instructs the state Alcohol Beverage Control Board to develop regulations for the production, distribution, and sale of marijuana that match regulations governing how wine and beer are produced and sold. It specifies that the marijuana regulations may not be more stringent than those governing wine and beer. Local communities may not adopt for marijuana “higher or extra fees, limits, site plans, zoning, regulations, or procedures for commercial activity which are different than (sic) those which regulate grape farms, wineries, [and] distribution and sales of wine and beer.”
It allows households to grow up to 12 mature outdoor flowering marijuana plants or 24 mature indoor flowering plants but specifies that neither plants nor their “produce” may be sold.
The initiative prohibits state and local officials from helping federal officials enforce federal marijuana laws in the state.
It bans all commercial advertising for sales, distribution, and use of marijuana except for medical marijuana and marijuana with a THC level below 0.3 percent, which it defines as hemp.
The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 makes it legal for anyone age 19 or older to “use, possess, share, cultivate, transport, process, distribute, sell, or otherwise engage in cannabis related activities. The initiative makes it a misdemeanor or infraction for any person under age 19 to possess, cultivate, transport, or distribute cannabis. The same penalty applies to anyone age 19 or older who furnishes marijuana to anyone younger than age 19.
It creates the California Cannabis Commission to establish and oversee a regulatory framework for the commercial production, distribution, and sale of marijuana.
It specifically preempts all local jurisdiction enactments that are in force today.
August 29, 2011—Advocates have filed the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 with California’s Attorney General, the first step required to place an initiative on the state’s ballot.
The bill states that “it shall not be a crime or public offense for an adult to use, possess, share, cultivate, transport, process, distribute, sell, or otherwise engage in cannabis related activities.”
It makes the state department of public health responsible for creating a regulatory system for the production, distribution, and sale of marijuana. However, it allows individuals to possess up to 3 pounds of the drug for personal use and exempts that amount from “taxation, regulation, fines, and fees.”
Under the bill, laws prohibiting driving while impaired or “the diversion of marijuana to minors” would still hold, although neither “impaired” nor “minors” are defined.
The bill’s sponsors, with descriptions of each from the San Francisco Weekly, are:
- Pebbles Trippet, who won a court decision in 1997 allowing medical marijuana users the right to transport marijuana
- Joe Rogoway, a marijuana defense attorney and founder of the Cannabis Law Institute
- Oakland attorney Bill Panzer, a co-author of the state’s medical marijuana law
- Marijuana defense attorney Omar Figueroa, and
- Frank Lucido, MD, an early adopter of writing medical marijuana recommendations
Sponsors say that Mendocino County marijuana growers support this measure. Growers opposed Proposition 19, the state’s first full legalization initiative, which voters turned down, 46-54, last year.
The next step to get this bill on the ballot will be to collect signatures.
This is the second 2012 ballot initiative that will legalize marijuana for recreational use if California voters approve it.
Advocates who introduced the first, The Regulate Marijuana like Wine Act of 2012, currently are collecting signatures.
August 18, 2011–U.S. Representatives Ron Paul and Barney Frank have introduced H.R. 2306, the “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011.” The bill would allow states to legalize marijuana for recreational use and regulate it like alcohol.
If you care about children, ask these legislators how they plan to keep legal pot out of kids’ hands. Because once it becomes legal, a marijuana industry will emerge that will rival the alcohol (and tobacco) industry. Both target children to replace the 79,000 (alcohol) and 443,000 (tobacco) Americans their products kill each year. These industries know the research as well as scientists do: the younger children are when they start using, the more likely they’ll become addicted — and lifetime customers. Despite a legal purchase age of 18 for tobacco and 21 for alcohol, six out of ten first-time smokers and nine out of ten first-time drinkers are underage. Accessibility drives use. The RAND Corporation estimates that if California legalizes marijuana and sells it like alcohol, the state will have 8,000 marijuana outlets, or, if like tobacco, 38,000 marijuana outlets.
The scientific literature does not support the widespread belief that marijuana is not addictive. Nine percent of those who begin marijuana use at age 18 or older eventually satisfy DSM-IV criteria for marijuana dependence, as do 20 percent to 30 percent of those who use the drug five or more times, and 35 percent to 40 percent who use the drug daily or near daily, according to the California Society of Addiction Medicine. Children who begin using marijuana before age 14 are six times more likely to develop addiction than those who wait until age 21. Other research finds that marijuana use interferes with children’s ability to succeed in school, and long-term marijuana use is linked to some forms of mental illness in some users. Children’s vulnerability to the impact of addictive drugs may be explained by adolescent brain development, a process that allows impulse to routinely trump judgment until the prefrontal cortex fully matures at ages 22-23 in young women, 24-25 in young men.
National Families in Action opposes legalization. We do not want to see a third legal industry arise to market an addictive drug to children. However, the country may go there anyway. So last year we gathered together some of the nation’s most thoughtful experts who work to prevent underage smoking and drinking. We asked:
Had you had the opportunity to write the tobacco control law when cigarettes were introduced in the 1860s or the law that repealed Prohibition in the 1930s, what measures would you have included to prevent these industries from marketing their products to children?
Out of that effort grew 12 provisions to stop a marijuana industry from behaving like its predecessors.
One is a complete ban on marijuana advertising (which the Supreme Court might strike down on First Amendment grounds). Designed to force a marijuana industry to self-regulate, another provision is a penalty fee imposed on the industry for every underage user. The fee would be 10 percent higher than the amount the industry could make selling marijuana to a young teenager who uses the drug for a lifetime. A third is an automatic repeal of legalization if underage use exceeds certain levels. A fourth is an industry-financed fund to pay for the damage legal marijuana will do to those who need treatment for addiction and other marijuana-induced health problems, so that taxpayers won’t have to pick up the tab. All 12 provisions and their rationales may be read on this website at “Provisions.”
The need for steps to protect children becomes obvious when comparing their use of alcohol vs. marijuana today, before marijuana is legalized.
Twice as many 12 to 20-year-olds use alcohol as marijuana at every level of use:
- Lifetime (alcohol, 20.1 million – marijuana, 10.6 million)
- Past year (alcohol, 17 million – marijuana, 7.9 million)
- Past month (alcohol, 10.4 million – marijuana, 4.5 million).
The difference is more pronounced among younger children.
- Seven times more 12-year-olds use alcohol vs. marijuana in their lifetimes
- Six times more use it annually
- Five times more use it monthly
Four times more 13-year-olds use alcohol vs. marijuana across all levels of use. Such is the power of the freedom legal drug industries have to market their products to underage children despite laws to the contrary.
We have failed to protect children from initiating alcohol and tobacco use and paid a terrible price in terms of early addiction, the consequent development of other devastating illnesses later in life, and premature death. If Congress allows states to legalize marijuana without the kinds of provisions proposed here, we can expect children’s marijuana use to rapidly reach their levels of alcohol use.
What kind of price will we pay for that?
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Uncategorized | National Families in Action February 21, 2012 | 
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