The organization that funded Arizona's 2010 medical marijuana initiative says lawmakers who now want voters to scrap the program are missing the point of a study on teen use.
Morgan Fox, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, acknowledged Friday that the report by the Criminal Justice Commission shows more than one out of every nine high school students who regularly use the drug said they got it from a legal medical marijuana user.
But Fox pointed out that overall teen marijuana use last year is lower than it was in 2010 when the initiative was approved. All that's changed, he said, is where the students are getting it.
In fact, Fox said, an argument could be made that every teen who gets it from a medical marijuana user -- the report does not say when it was given to them, sold or stolen -- may mean a teen who was not having to buy the drug from a dealer, someone who might be selling more dangerous drugs and is involved with organized crime.
The group is fighting back following publication of the latest ACJC study about teen use of everything from tobacco and alcohol to marijuana, prescription drugs and heroin.
One question specifically added this year, though, was asking teens where they got their marijuana, something not asked before.
The overwhelming majority of high schoolers who admitted to having smoked in the last 30 days said they got the drug from friends. But 11.6 percent said it came from someone who has a state-issued card allowing them to obtain and possess up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks.
"We definitely don't think that this abuse (of marijuana by teens) is something that should be laughed off or that it's not important,'' Fox said. "But it's certainly not important enough to rise to the level of denying qualified patients their ability to use this medicine.''
And Fox said it's wrong to link legalizing marijuana for medical use with teen abuse.
"Increased available of marijuana to qualified patients is not causing an increase in marijuana use, which is pretty much what everyone is alleging here,'' he said.
The latest ACJC report puts the number of teens using marijuana in the last 30 days at 14.3 percent. That compares with 14.8 percent in 2010, though it is higher than the 12.5 percent from the 2008 report.
But Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said none of that deters him from pushing his proposal, introduced earlier this week, to ask voters in 2014 to repeal the 2010 initiative.
Kavanagh said he was already questioning the program before the ACJC report, saying that the program is not what was sold to voters. He said only a small minority of the more than 33,000 who hold state-issued medical marijuana cards report suffering from cancer or glaucoma, with most saying they were suffering from "subjective back pain.''
What the report showed -- and added to his desire to repeal the program -- was that some of the marijuana earmarked for patients is being diverted to minors.
"Whether it's responsible for an increase or a decrease (in teen use) is totally irrelevant,'' Kavanagh said.
Fox, however, said that is precisely should be the focus for lawmakers when they consider repealing the medical marijuana initiative -- and, ultimately, voters if the Kavanagh proposal gets that far.
"Teens have always thought that marijuana was a lot easier to get than alcohol,'' he said.
"The fact that this substance is more widely available for qualified patients I'm not sure is really increasing the availability,'' Fox continued. "Teenagers are going to find marijuana, one way or the other.''
It was Fox's organization that put up close to $469,000 of the nearly $800,000 spent in 2010 to promote Proposition 203. Fox said, though, that no decision has been made whether the Marijuana Policy Project will get involved with any campaign to defeat a repeal measure if that gets on the 2014 ballot.
Marijuana use by Arizona high schoolers:
Year / Used ever / Used in last 30 days
2012 / 28.7% / 14.3%
2010 / 29.9% / 14.8%
2008 / 27.4% / 12.5%
2006 / 29.2% / 13.1%
2004 / 31.3% / 13.8%
2002 / 31.8% / 20.5%
-- Source: Arizona Criminal Justice Commission
Arizona Willie posted at 9:04 am on Sat, Jan 5, 2013.
Looks like Kavanaugh must be tired of public service and wanting to make sure he doesn't get re-elected.
piepaw posted at 12:55 pm on Sat, Jan 5, 2013.
You got that right, Willie. When the conservatives in this state realize that it's really in their best political interest to support the legalization of Cannabis their support base will be stronger than ever. They say they're for smaller government so now they have a chance to put their signatures where there mouths are at and start supporting the full and complete legalization of Cannabis in this state just as Colorado and Washington states have done. Everyone already knows that Cannabis is less harmful to the individual and society in general than, say, alcohol and/or tobacco, let alone most all prescription drugs.
JunkKicker posted at 3:49 pm on Sat, Jan 5, 2013.
B/S, I know several kids (under 21s) that smoke weed and they all get it from guys who have cards. Again B/S. This whole law was a big dupe on the voting population of AZ. Smoking weed to cure anything is just about as effective as drinking to cure anything. Look at the statistics, most of the cards given out were to men 25-55 and for "chronic pain"... What the Frac is that!!!
The real reason weed smoking has gone down around a point, kids are now going to illegal scripts, Heroin and Meth... Yes, attitudes like this has given the kids a passe attitude toward weed, which is still dangerous, addictive and unpredictable.
Ateam1 posted at 8:20 pm on Sat, Jan 5, 2013.
The same people that are trying to stop GUN'S are the LIBTARD weed smokers!!! Keep going with your foolishnes! KEEP IT UP OBAMA FANS! PUFF PUFFF PUFFFFF,WOW ! GREAT DECISION!!!!!!!!!!!![thumbdown]
malcolmkyle posted at 4:16 am on Sun, Jan 6, 2013.
Here follows an extract from "Notes on Democracy" by Henry Louis Mencken, written in 1926, during alcohol prohibition (1919-1933):
The Prohibitionists, when they foisted their brummagem cure-all upon the country under cover of the war hysteria, gave out that their advocacy of it was based upon a Christian yearning to abate drunkenness, and so abolish crime, poverty and disease. They preached a [crime, poverty and disease free] millennium, and no doubt convinced hundreds of thousands of naive and sentimental persons, not themselves Puritans, nor even democrats.
They cannot stop the use of alcohol, nor even appreciably diminish it, but they can badger and annoy everyone who seeks to use it decently, and they can fill the jails with men taken for purely artificial offences, and they can get satisfaction thereby for the Puritan yearning to browbeat and injure, to torture and terrorize, to punish and humiliate all who show any sign of being happy. And all this they can do with a safe line of policemen and judges in front of them; always they can do it without personal risk.
Azi posted at 8:13 am on Sun, Jan 6, 2013.
I believe the issue is not marijuana, but the availability of any controlled substances to a small percentage of youth.
Mr. Cavanaugh (and those of his ilk) seem bound and determined to dictate to the people their own ideals with little or no regard to their constituents and the citizens of Arizona. You can beat that dead horse all you want, but I do know it didn't work for Russell Pearce.
If my children were to have access to marijuana, I would want it to be something locally grown, controlled and financially beneficial to the State, not a drug cartel.
Quit wasting the State's time.
DataMan posted at 9:36 am on Sun, Jan 6, 2013.
Will Kavanagh now try to shutdown all prescription medicines, as kids often get those from their parents medicine cabinets?
Arizona Willie posted at 9:45 am on Sun, Jan 6, 2013.
JunkPoster: here are the facts straight from D.H.S
Patient Age-groups
Less than 18 years 24 0.07%
18 to 30 years 8,518 26.5%
31 to 40 years 6,685 20.8%
41 to 50 years 5,807 18.07%
51 to 60 years 6,826 21.24%
61 to 70 years 3,670 11.42%
71 to 80 years 517 1.61%
81 and older 95 0.3%
Totals 73.44% of users over 30
53% of users are over 50