The Case Against Legalizing Marijuana

Why is the media unabashedly promoting marijuana legalization yet wringing its hands over the increase in heroin use, at least for the first news cycle after Phillip Seymour Hoffman died with a heroin needle in his vein?

Is it that heroin is that much more dangerous? In fact, many, many more lives have been ruined as the result of marijuana addiction.

Even superstars at the peak of their career have been brought down by weed--the latest example: Justin Bieber, who, according to NBC News, was so out of control that on his private plane he refused the pilot's repeated requests that he stop smoking pot on the plane for everyone's safety, then abused the flight attendants, and now faces jail time for endangering a flight. Perhaps not surprising, he just announced he's retiring.  He's far from the only one. Here's a link to ten celebrities with photos of them before and after their drug abuse: MacCauley Culkin, Britney Spears, George Michael, Courtney Love, Whitney Houston, Amanda Bynes, Kate Moss, Mischa Barton, Amy Winehouse, and of course, Lindsay Lohan.

And in countries in which pot was legalized, use increased dramatically. For example, after marijuana became legal in the Netherlands, use among 18-20 year olds nearly tripled.

The percentage of teens 12 to 17 is highest in medical-marijuana states. And already in Colorado, use among children is skyrocketing. It's understandable. With pot legal to adults, the black marketeers simply are redirecting their marketing efforts to children. Dr. Christian Thurstone, Colorado Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Society president and youth addiction researcher at the University of Colorado-Denver, reported that his clinic has been “inundated with young people reporting for marijuana-addiction treatment... Every day, we see the acute effects of the policy of legalization. And our kids are paying a great price.”

Last month on CNN, Kevin Sabet, former Obama administration drug abuse advisor, reported that since legalization in Colorado, a pre-employment drug testing firm reports a 44 percent increase in the number of job applicants who tested positive for marijuana. 

A review of the literature makes clear that contrary to legalization advocates' claims, in every case, legalization resulted in greater abuse, more crime, etc.And lest you think I overestimate pot's dangers, see THIS. And a new study shows that the damage is not just to adults, not just to children, but to unborn fetuses. Update: The evidence continues to mount. THIS finds that marijuana use increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, even in the young.

Even legalization advocates, for example, Mark Kleiman, in the current Washington Monthly acknowledges:

About a quarter of the sixteen million Americans who report having used cannabis in the past month say they used it every day or almost every day. Those frequent users also use more cannabis per day of use than do less frequent users. About half of the daily- and near-daily-use population meets diagnostic criteria for substance abuse or dependence—that is, they find that their cannabis habit is interfering with other activities and bringing negative consequences, and that their attempts to cut back on the frequency or quantity of their cannabis use have failed. (Those estimates are based on users’ own responses to surveys, so they probably underestimate the actual risks.)

And then, of course, there are the extreme cases. A substantial number of these daily users spend virtually every waking hour under the influence. Legal availability is likely to add both to their numbers and to the intensity of their problems. Jonathan Caulkins has done a calculation suggesting that legalization at low prices might increase the amount of time spent stoned by about fifteen billion person-hours per year, concentrated among frequent heavy users rather than among the more numerous Saturday-night partiers. Every year, hundreds of thousands of cannabis users visit emergency departments having unintentionally overdosed, experiencing anxiety, dysphoria, and sometimes panic. Presumably many others suffer very unpleasant experiences without seeking professional attention."

Is that what you want for your child, your sibling, your spouse, your parent, for America?

Forget about those extreme millions, the last thing the U.S. student body and workforce needs is to be less motivated and more memory-impaired and prone to serious cardiovascular disease, cancer, and vehicle accidents and the resultant mayhem and death. Here, for example, even the liberal Obama Administration issued this summary just of the public health consequences of legalizing marijuana. Here, for example, is a report linking pot to lung and other cancers. Alcohol and tobacco costs Americans more than $350 billion every year, mainly public health costs. Just what we need: making more available a drug that makes you stupid, lazy, and more likely to get a life-threatening illness. A new Harvard/Northwestern study finds that even casual use causes significant damage to the brain.

Do we really want another Big Tobacco? It would no doubt unleash its ultra-sophisticated marketing machine on a whole new line of products: every imaginable brand of pot.  We'd see pot commercials on the Superbowl, a pot section in every 7-11 and supermarket. Already one group led by a former Microsoft executive has vowed to raise $100,000,000 to create The Starbucks of Pot. Use and abuse would skyrocket and the big beneficiary would be the likes of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

But you claim, "Legalization will eliminate the black market." Think again, dude. Already in Colorado, because marijuana is taxed at 29 percent, a black market already is burgeoning, in which you can buy pot for--you guessed it--29% less. And as with all sin taxes, you can bet the tax rate will only go upward from 29%. For example, in most states, the taxes (federal, state, and sales) on a pack of cigarettes exceeds 100%.) Of course, the higher the tax rate on pot, the bigger the black market. And with marijuana legal only to people over 21, the black market and its unsavory types will, of course, as I mentioned, simply refocus its marketing toward children. So all legalization does is expand the number of places that people can buy your memory-impairing, motivation-killing, cancer/heart-disease-causing drug, especially to children. Yippee!

And lest you think that when they grow up, the kids will stop in time from it hurting their career, an authoritative study found that pot users who started as teens, suffered lifetime effects even if they stopped.

But what about for medicinal use? Marijuana is available in capsule form by prescription. No need to make it available through "pot dispensaries." Everyone knows the "medical marijuana" argument is a sham and another way kids more easily access pot. According to a study by Seattle's public health department, 39 percent of children who use pot said it originally came from a medical marijuana dispensary. 

A pothead, trying to play gotcha, asked me, "Hey dude, would you outlaw alcohol?" Yes, I would. Alcohol causes harm wildly in excess of its benefits. Of course, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and a black market in alcohol would arise just as in Prohibition but, net, there would be less use and thus less damage to humankind. Indeed, alcohol use dropped by 30 to 40 percent during Prohibition. (Here is the original study.) I enjoy a glass of wine but would gladly give it up for the societal benefits that would derive from a new Prohibition. At the risk of using a term that is becoming obsolete, I believe we've become a too permissive society, prioritizing "do what the hell you want" over "be responsible." And that message filters right down to children.

Our Socratic pothead then tried, "Next you're going to want to outlaw ice cream?!" Marijuana's risk profile is far worse. 

But what about the libertarian argument that people should be able to do what they want as long as it doesn't harm others? Well, pot harms everyone: the user, his or her family, employer, the drivers and pedestrians who are in accidents because of the slow-reflexed, often glacial-driving pothead. How often do you see a car creeping on the freeway? Yes, some are old people who should have their licenses revoked but many are blitzed. A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 18 percent of drivers in fatal accidents tested positive for a non-alcoholic mind-altering drug, mainly marijuana. And this 2013 study found almost twice as many drivers in fatal car accidents tested positive versus a control group. And since legalization in Washington, data from the Washington State Patrol and Toxicologist shows a 40% increase in the share of driver cases in which the driver tested positive.

The following two paragraph has been added thanks to reader Rex's comments.

You might ask, "But what about enforcement? You can't stop substance abuse altogether." Of course not but, again, the perfect is the enemy of the good. You can significantly reduce pot and alcohol's damage to humankind by not making it legally purchasable, with law enforcement only going after big producers and distributors, with law enforcement against users only in response to citizen complaints, in which case the punishment would be a ticket that costs about the same as a carpool violation: $500. That could cover all or more of the cost of enforcement with individuals.

You might also ask, "What about decriminalizing rather than legalizing pot?" No good: That would send a message to everyone, including kids, that pot isn't bad. Its use would then increase.

In sum, as a nation, can one reasonably assert that America will be better off if its population used more pot? Even if more taxes were raised by legalization, is that how we want to do it? Is that the sort of country we're trying to build? Do you believe your children and grandchildren would be better off with pot legalized and so available to kids through parent stashes and the black market that will, if it's legal for adults, target kids?
 

And then there's the opportunity cost. If pot and alcohol were not as readily available, more people, although certainly not everyone, would more likely pursue one of the countless more rewarding, less harmful recreations: from learning to mentoring, writing to painting to befriending.

Pot should be illegal and if our legislators cared a whit about us, they'd also make alcohol and tobacco illegal.

Care to disagree?