09/26/2013
It's hard to respond to an editorial like this with a straight face. Kids have zero problem getting their hands on cannabis right now! It's easier for them to get than alcohol or ci******es. It will be just as easy when, or if, the state cartel stores finally open up. Do actually believe there's a ma*****na shortage right now that will somehow be filled by the LCB licensed stores?
Those stores, should they ever get open, will be selling ma*****na at two to four times the current price that those under 21 are currently paying. Your may think our kids are stupid, but they know that $10 per gram is a lot better deal than $40 per gram. Since one is no more illegal for them than the other, what makes you think they'd ever choose to pay four times what they're paying right now? Did you really think this through, or are you just parroting the ridiculous scare tactics of organizations like Drug Free America?
Are you actually concerned about the welfare of our under 21 year old population, or is this just one more anti-ma*****na "scare" editorial? Frankly, we've had enough of those over the passed 70 years. That's how this whole "war on drugs" got started. Publications like yours bought off on the principles of "Re**er Madness" and you simply refuse to let go of the government propaganda. If you were half as worried about our kids as I am, you'd be more worried about the life-changing consequences that I-502 added for our youth.
More than 3/4 of our college kids are under 21. I-502 did not "legalize" or reduce penalties for use by those under 21, it increased those penalties to a truly dangerous level. Did anyone think that by increasing penalties for our kids that we were helping them? Did you think that they'd stopped using cannabis if you raised the penalties? Since that hasn't worked in the last 70 years or so, what makes you believe that it will work this time? No one should be that naive and be in a position that influences public opinion.
The truth is that there is now, thanks to 502, a zero tolerance per se DUID law. If you believe that you kid never, ever, smokes ma*****na, the odds are that you're wrong. That probably not the only thing they do totally behind your back because they know how intolerant you are of just about everything they do. So let's just assume that for sake of argument that your 20 year old college student has decided he's going to be an attorney, maybe just like his dad, and he gets straight "A"s in his classes. He's a good kid and would never get drunk and get behind the wheel...he know that if he has a couple of beers, he's definitely over the limit.
He doesn't smoke a lot of ma*****na, but a lot of his friends smoke regularly and he'll smoke at parties with them a couple of times a month. It's hardly an "addiction", or a "drug problem". And just like with alcohol, he would never drive impaired. But what neither you, nor he, understand is that zero tolerance per se DUID laws are not meant to catch "impaired" drivers. That is absolutely not the function of those laws. They are there to catch anyone with any measurable amount of THC in their blood, no matter how insignificant.
Thanks to the most recent study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (April 2012), we now know that ACTIVE THC can stay stored in your blood and fat cells for 30 or longer. The good news is that it's just sitting there and it's not impairing you whatsoever. And you certainly don't feel impaired; mostly because you aren't impaired. You also don't believe that you could possibly be impaired because you haven't smoked any ma*****na since that party two weeks ago. So you're pretty confident that you're safe to drive, right?
The sad truth is that you aren't impaired, but the reality is that the THC from that joint you smoked at that party two weeks ago is still hiding there in your blood. You're headed home late one Saturday night and the State Patrol is out hunting for drunk drivers. You're young, it's late, and you're the first person they're going to be pulling over. It's 1am and these cops are trained to believe that if you are out that late on Saturday night you've either been drinking or smoking ma*****na, or both. This is probably not a totally unwarranted assumption on their part.
They pull you over for some minor traffic infraction; perhaps your tail light is out. The State Patrol officer asks you to take a Field Sobriety Test. Hey...no problem...you haven't been drinking OR smoking ma*****na so why not take the test, right? The cop gives you a field sobriety test and decides you aren't drunk, but you may be stoned. Now he's going to take you in for a blood test and ....Whooops! He's going to find THC in your blood. It's only a small amount, and you were right, you weren't impaired, but that fact will never be heard by the court. You are now headed for the worst ride of your life.
You will now be criminally charge with driving under the influence of drugs. You attorney will tell you that he cannot even mention that you weren't impaired. Per se DUID laws, remember, are not about impairment. I had the substance, albeit very tiny, in your blood system, so you're automatically guilty.
Now you won't be going to law school after all.
You're going to lose your federal college grant (sometimes this happens in just a matter of days), so you'll be leaving college and headed back home to live with mom and dad....who will NOT be happy that you just screwed up your whole life.
You're going to have a difficult time finding a job with a "driving under the influence of drugs" charge on your record.
You won't be driving for at least a year and you will be required to install an alcohol interlock device on your car (no...that doesn't make any sense, but that's what the legislature just passed this year). This alone will cost you around $2,000, on top of the $10,000 you had to spend on your DUI attorney. Oh, and then there's the court costs and fines, figure another $2,000.
You'll be spending time doing drug treatment...that will be mandatory. You'll be paying for that too.
Essentially, your life as you knew it just disappeared and you're still trying to figure out how it happened.
For those of you who think I'm over-blowing this situation, I should tell you that I'm certified in the same National Highway Traffic Safety Administration program for Field Sobriety Testing and the DRE program (Drug Recognition Expert) as the Washington State Patrol officers that will be pulling your poor kid over. Your kid has no chance and he never even saw it coming.
Just as it's always been, the most dangerous outcome from ma*****na use is not the risk of becoming "addicted". The biggest risk is the outrageous ma*****na laws that can ruin a kid's life and career. I-502 has only made those laws even more dangerous for those under 21. Don't say you weren't warned...I've been writing about this for the last three years.
Steve Sarich
Cannabis Action Coalition
206-612-9044
http://www.yakimaherald.com/csp/mediapool/sites/Shared/assets/csp/singleStory.csp?cid=1530260&sid=544&fb_comment_id=fbc_368193246647090_1827347_368343006632114
Don’t forget prevention, education in ma*****na law Email Print Comments Share TweetPosted on September 26, 2013 Yakima Herald-Republic editorial boardThe state Liquor Control Board has been reinventing the wheel — inventing it, actually — in the year since Washington’s voters approved Initiative 50...
