Thread: Measuring Colorado's "great experiment" with marijuana

Measuring Colorado's "great experiment" with marijuana

CBS News January 7, 2018, 9:10 AM

We're far from CLEARING THE SMOKE over recreational marijuana use. A new federal policy announced this past week takes a tough line. It's a challenge to states that have legalized use, including, most recently, the biggest state of all. Our Cover Story is reported by Barry Petersen:

"I've never experienced the spectrum of talking to cops while high," laughed Alex. "So I'm like, 'This is gonna be pretty cool!'"

It's a sign of marijuana's growing acceptance. During the Drug Wars in the 1980s and '90s, stoners were afraid of cops. But at this workshop held in Sacramento, volunteers are showing law enforcement what it looks like when they're too high to drive.

It's illegal to drive under the influence of marijuana, but there is no definitive roadside test for impairment -- no breathalyzer as for alcohol, so an arrest is often a cop's judgment call.

"Some of the things that I would look for [are] some of the things our test subjects showed, which is difficulty following my instructions as I gave them, short-term memory loss," said police officer Hal Larem. "Very consistent with marijuana."

Attorney Chris Halsor started this program in Colorado when pot for recreational use became legal. Now, what he learned in Colorado is being taught in other states, like California, where legal recreational pot went on sale last week.

"We don't want people who are lawfully doing something [to] be arrested when they aren't impaired," said Halsor.

"But we don't want 'em driving on the road, either," said Petersen.

Halsor laughed: "We don't want them driving on the road!"

A little over five years ago, Colorado voted for what was called the "Great Experiment": legal recreational pot. It was the first state where recreational pot went on sale, with long lines, in 2014.

Colorado's experience still drives the national debate.

Recreational pot is now legal in eight states plus the District of Columbia. Twenty-one additional states now allow sales of marijuana for medical use.

You might think by now the debate on pot good or bad would be diminishing. Not so … even as more states are allowing marijuana, opponents now think they have their best chance ever of shutting it all down.

This past week Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the nation's U.S. attorneys they are free to prosecute those selling pot in states even where it is legal -- a reversal of the policy under President Obama.

It's unclear who, if any, U.S. attorneys will change their hands-off attitude about legal marijuana.

And Sessions drew angry fire from his own party, including Colorado's Republican Senator Cory Gardner, who said Sessions went back on a promise to leave Colorado's legalized pot business alone.

"This is about a decision by the State of Colorado," Gardner said. "And we were told states' rights would be protected!"

Sessions' move has given encouragement to anti-marijuana groups, who are putting up billboards in Colorado. ("Are you better off that you were five years ago?" asks one sign posted by Marijuana Accountability Coalition.)

The state is NOT better off with legal pot, says Kevin Sabet, president of the bi-partisan group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), which supports a decrease in marijuana use.

"We are reintroducing the new 'Big Tobacco' of our time, 'Big Marijuana,' with all of the kinds of promotions that they are putting out there," Sabet said.

Sabet and others point to an increase in pot-related DUIs and traffic fatalities. But state officials warn that it's too soon to know if that is a trend or just better reporting by police.

And Sabet says lobbyists want pot so pervasive you could even smoke it in restaurants. "We haven't had smoking in restaurants in this country for 30 to 40 years," he said.

Petersen said, "I don't know anybody who's lobbying for smoking in restaurants. There is a Denver, Colorado ordinance they're talking about where you can smoke in specific designated places."

"Oh, I'd be happy to introduce you to the D.C. lobbyists that have that on their lists, and absolutely are --"

"Well, they're not doing it here, because I live here."

"Yeah, well, I mean, but there are people that are advocating for that," Sabet said.

And in this heated debate, use by teenagers may be the hottest hot-button issue.

In a letter to Colorado's governor last year, Attorney General Sessions, cited a federal study, showing marijuana use by young people in the state increased 20 percent since legalization in 2014. But that same study continued to track use through 2016, and eventually showed a decline of 13.5 percent.

Petersen asked, "Is this an easier issue to deal with on a state level considering the partisanship we have in Washington now?"

"I think it is, in Colorado particularly. We work well across the aisle," said that state's Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican, she opposed legalized recreational pot, but thinks a shutdown by Sessions is a bad idea.

"I look at this as a state's rights issue, and Coloradans have made the choice to legalize marijuana," Coffman said. "I would not support the federal government coming in and reversing that decision for us."

She says there are problems -- the black market still exists, and pot gets illegally shipped across state lines. "So I would say we're somewhere in-between great success and absolute failure. And we're leaning towards success."

And by any financial measure, marijuana in America has become a roaring success. The legal cannabis industry is projected to reach $10.8 billion in sales this year -- larger than the sales of ice cream ($5.1 billion) or baby diapers ($6.4 billion).

And pot could provide as many as 177,000 jobs -- more than double the number of jobs in the coal industry.

And judging by business at a recent pot trade show in Oakland, California, there are a lot more jobs to come in areas outside of pot, like what Nick Dinicola sells: insurance.

"Basically, anything that your standard business would need, except we specialize in doing that for the cannabis space," Dinicola said.

"This is the kind of insurance General Motors buys?" Petersen asked.

"Exactly."

Pam Hadfield co-founded Hello MD, which provides online matching of patients with medical resources. Her personal story is about an addiction to opioids she ended by switching to marijuana.

The lesson here? "This is a viable alternative to an enormous problem that's gripping our entire country," Hadfield said.

"It worked for me. And you could say that it's anecdotal. And yet, we're hearing from these people every day, 'This has changed my life.'"

Here again, what could be another lesson to learn from Colorado, where opioid use has fallen since legal recreational pot was allowed.

But experts say those numbers need more research.

And someday, Hailee Tougas might be one of those marijuana researchers. A pre-med student, she took California's first-ever college course in marijuana, taught at the University of California - Davis.

"The weed class -- that's what my friends called it" she laughed. "It's a physiology class. And you actually needed to take an upper-division physiology class as a prerequisite for the course."

Among the discussions: marijuana's potential to ease pain.

Petersen asked, "What would we lose in terms of its medical potential if marijuana was banned?"

"I think we would really being doing an injustice to a lot of patients," Tougas replied.

But without extensive research, a lot of pot's value remains more of a hopeful perception.

Other perceptions in Colorado are true (Yes, there really are more pot shops than Starbucks). Some are not (it's against the law to smoke pot in public, and rarely do you see someone doing that).

And some perceptions are worth noting: Colorado Attorney General Coffman, who says the people have spoken.

Petersen asked, "Do you think the day will ever come when Colorado will basically roll back what it's done with marijuana legalization?"

"I don't. I don't see that happening," Coffman replied. "I think probably more people would vote for legalization if they had that opportunity now than last time."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/measuri...ith-marijuana/

Marijuana devastated Colorado, don’t legalize it nationally

Jeff Hunt, Opinion contributorPublished 7:00 a.m. ET Aug. 7, 2017 | Updated 2:06 p.m. ET Aug. 7, 2017

The proposed Marijuana Justice Act would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act.

Arrests are up. We still have a black market. And people are in danger.



(Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY)

Last week, Senator Cory Booker introduced the Marijuana Justice Act in an effort to legalize marijuana across the nation and penalize local communities that want nothing to do with this dangerous drug. This is the furthest reaching marijuana legalization effort to date and marks another sad moment in our nation’s embrace of a drug that will have generational consequences.

Our country is facing a drug epidemic. Legalizing recreational marijuana will do nothing that Senator Booker expects. We heard many of these same promises in 2012 when Colorado legalized recreational marijuana.

In the years since, Colorado has seen an increase in marijuana related traffic deaths, poison control calls, and emergency room visits. The marijuana black market has increased in Colorado, not decreased. And, numerous Colorado marijuana regulators have been indicted for corruption.

In 2012, we were promised funds from marijuana taxes would benefit our communities, particularly schools. Dr. Harry Bull, the Superintendent of Cherry Creek Schools, one of the largest school districts in the state, said, "So far, the only thing that the legalization of marijuana has brought to our schools has been marijuana."

In fiscal year 2016, marijuana tax revenue resulted in $156,701,018. The total tax revenue for Colorado was $13,327,123,798, making marijuana only 1.18% of the state's total tax revenue. The cost of marijuana legalization in public awareness campaigns, law enforcement, healthcare treatment, addiction recovery, and preventative work is an unknown cost to date.

Senator Booker stated his reasons for legalizing marijuana is to reduce "marijuana arrests happening so much in our country, targeting certain communities - poor communities, minority communities." It's a noble cause to seek to reduce incarceration rates among these communities but legalizing marijuana has had the opposite effect.

According to the Colorado Department of Public Safety, arrests in Colorado of black and Latino youth for marijuana possession have increased 58% and 29% respectively after legalization. This means that Black and Latino youth are being arrested more for marijuana possession after it became legal.

Furthermore, a vast majority of Colorado's marijuana businesses are concentrated in neighborhoods of color. Leaders from these communities, many of whom initially voted to legalize recreational marijuana, often speak out about the negative impacts of these businesses.

Senator Booker released his bill just a few days after the Washington Post reported on a study by the Review of Economic Studies that found "college students with access to recreational cannabis on average earn worse grades and fail classes at a higher rate." Getting off marijuana especially helped lower performing students who were at risk of dropping out. Since legalizing marijuana, Colorado's youth marijuana use rate is the highest in the nation, 74% higher than the national average, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Report. This is having terribly negative effects on the education of our youth.

If Senator Booker is interested in serving poor and minority communities, legalizing marijuana is one of the worst decisions. There is much work to be done to reduce incarceration and recidivism, but flooding communities with drugs will do nothing but exacerbate the problems.

The true impact of marijuana on our communities is just starting to be learned. The negative consequences of legalizing recreational marijuana will be felt for generations. I encourage Senator Booker to spend time with parents, educators, law enforcement, counselors, community leaders, pastors, and legislators before rushing to legalize marijuana nationally. We’ve seen the effects in our neighborhoods in Colorado, and this is nothing we wish upon the nation.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...umn/536010001/

Marijuana Doomsday Didn't Come

Those who thought Colorado's legalization would be a catastrophe were wrong then and are wrong now.

By Antony Davies and James R. HarriganDec. 19, 2017, at 2:45 p.m.
U.S. News & World Report

It's been a little more than five years since Colorado's voters approved Constitutional Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana in the state. Sales commenced four years ago this January. Although the amendment passed by a comfortable 10-point margin, the debate in Colorado has continued in the years since prohibition ended, most recently flaring up with an editorial published in the Colorado Springs Gazette. Last month, the Gazette's editorial board referred to what has happened in Colorado as "an embarrassing cautionary tale," before presenting a laundry list of the purported ill-effects of the change in the law.

That list included everything from the smell of burning marijuana, to increased homelessness, to rampant teen drug use, to a doubling of the number of drivers involved in fatal accidents who test positive for marijuana. This last charge is particularly puzzling as there is no reliable DUI test for marijuana, and drug tests can't distinguish between marijuana ingested immediately before driving and marijuana ingested a month or more before driving. Not to be dissuaded by science, the editorial board went so far as to quote Marijuana Accountability Coalition founder Justin Luke Riley, who holds that legal marijuana is "devastating our kids and devastating whole communities."

All of this is doubtlessly music to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' ears, who is presently making noise about increasing the federal government's involvement in the fight against legalization. Sessions is on record as saying that "good people don't smoke marijuana." He has also supported the death penalty for marijuana dealers, lest there be any doubt which way he breaks on matters of drug prohibition. He recently went so far as to refer to marijuana as "a life-wrecking dependency" which is only "slightly less awful" than heroin.

Between Sessions and the Colorado Springs Gazette one could be forgiven for thinking that marijuana legalization is one of the most pernicious political decisions made in the modern era. Except it isn't. And there is a pretty significant body of evidence that indicates as much.

On the most basic level, it should be clear to all that the end of prohibition has not "devastated communities." Colorado is every bit as functional now as it was prior to legalization. Life goes on pretty much as usual. But the breathless assertions that children are somehow being harmed deserves consideration.

As it turns out, teen drug use in Colorado is currently at its lowest level in a decade, this according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. A little more than 9 percent of Coloradans aged 12 to 17 report using marijuana. And while that figure is higher than the national average for that age group, it is also the lowest rate in Colorado since 2007-2008. Meanwhile, alcohol, tobacco and heroin use among Colorado teens are all down as well.

So whatever else one might say about the wisdom of legalization, it is impossible to conclude that legalization has increased teen drug use. In no small part, this is due to the tremendous financial incentive legal cannabis businesses owners have to check IDs. Legal cannabis business owners must invest thousands of dollars in licensing fees, and tens-of-thousands of dollars in their physical shops. A business owner who sells to minors stands to lose all of that investment, in addition to going to jail. The corner dealer, not having an investment at risk and facing the prospect of jail time regardless of whether he sells to a minor or to an adult, is much less worried about selling to minors. Of course, black-market marijuana dealers are a lot harder to find in Colorado now too.

It is more likely that there is a larger trend at work given the declines in the consumption of other drugs. Whatever the answer, marijuana usage most certainly did not increase as a result of the change in the law as was often predicted both before and after legalization.

But what about crime rates? Comparing the three years prior to legalization to the three years since legalization yields a bit of a mixed bag. The homicide rate in Colorado is down, the robbery rate is down and the burglary rate is down. However, these measures have fallen for the country as a whole over the same period. Comparing crime rates in Colorado relative to the U.S. before and after legalization, the homicide rate is down, but other crime rates are up. With only three years' worth of data to draw on, there are no hard conclusions to draw. At worst, the mixed bag leaves the effect of marijuana legalization on crime an open question.

While some have reported that the homelessness problem has increased in Denver, that's only true (and barely so) for chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness is up 2 percent, but chronic homelessness comprises only one-fifth of total homelessness. Total homelessness in Denver is actually down more than 7 percent post- versus pre-legalization.

Marijuana opponents like Sessions are quick to identify all sorts of evils that will befall society in the wake of legalization. What opponents conveniently ignore are the myriad evils that befall society precisely because of prohibition. Today, over half a million Americans are arrested each year for marijuana possession. That's more than are arrested annually for all violent crimes combined. Each one of those half-million annual arrests represents a family that is subjected to financial, psychic and sometimes physical harm from police, prosecutors and courts.

Enough is enough. Evidence from Colorado shows that marijuana legalization does not lead to increased teen usage, does not lead to increased homelessness, and does not lead to societal breakdown. If marijuana does destroy lives, it is only because zealots like Sessions make it so. Saving people from themselves at the cost of their liberty is, generally speaking, a bad idea. When it comes to marijuana it is an especially bad idea. And all the lies and distortions of the truth will not change that.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/econo...me-to-colorado

(click on link for charts that show the rates over time).