SAVECALIFORNIA.COM NEWS RELEASE
January 28, 2010 -- For Immediate Release
Defeat of marijuana initiative is Job #1 for pro-child voters
Pro-family organization speaks out as pot initiative backers turn in signatures
Sacramento, California -- A leading California pro-family organization is warning voters not to support the marijuana legalization initiative, which today turned in around 700,000 signatures, likely enough to qualify for the November ballot. "Voters must rise up and defeat this foolish initiative, which, if passed, would irreparably harm the lungs and brains of teenagers and young adults," said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a statewide pro-family, pro-child organization. "Stopping this harmful marijuana initiative must be Job #1 for every voter who cares about children."
"Four times the strength of marijuana in the late 1970s, today's pot is more addictive than alcohol, more toxic than cigarettes, and will causing disease, disability and early death in those who regularly smoke it or use it as a gateway drug," Thomasson said. "Legalizing marijuana means many more DUIs and more Californians dying on the road. It means marijuana can and will be sold in grocery stores, normalizing this unhealthy substance in children's eyes."
"Good government is supposed to protect the innocent," Thomasson said. "But legalizing marijuana would victimize people by promoting a bad thing as something good, cause irreversible harm by putting powerful carcinogens and other toxins into their lungs and brains, empower crime organizations that will dominate a much-larger marijuana trade, and deny healthy lives to teenagers who will definitely get their hands on this harmful new marijuana."
"With the proliferation of pot stores throughout the state, Californians now realize they were fooled into approving so-called 'medicinal marijuana' on the 1996 ballot," Thomasson added. "Unless they're smoking something, voters won't make that mistake again."
The harms of today's marijuana is why the federal government has been educating teens about the dangers of marijuana, and is why law enforcement leaders and addiction experts testified against marijuana legalization at a Jan. 12, 2010 legislative hearing in Sacramento.
In December, a nationwide study of teen substance abuse from the University of Michigan reported that youth marijuana use increased last year, despite a nationwide prohibition. The study found 27 percent of 10th graders and a full third of 12th graders had used marijuana.
Comparatively, the rates for having had any alcohol to drink in the past 30 days are 15 percent, 30 percent and 44 percent in 8th, 10th and 12th grade. When asked how easy it would be to get alcohol if they wanted some, the majority of students in all three grades said it would be "fairly easy" or "very easy."
"The facts show that legalizing marijuana for adults will significantly increase marijuana smoking by teenagers," said Thomasson. "If something is legal for adults, children can and will get their hands on it. Some very selfish adults are leading young people astray."
"So-called medicinal marijuana was a hoax designed to fool the public into full legalization," Thomasson said. "Before Prop. 215 passed, patients could receive, and can still get today, prescriptions of Marinol, derived from marijuana without all the toxins and carcinogens, from bona fide physicians. This renders marijuana dispensaries completely unnecessary for those who ignorantly or deceptively claim they need it."
Other states and nations demonstrate the harm done by marijuana legalization:
Alaska: After the Alaska Supreme Court legalized marijuana in 1975, teen marijuana use jumped to 51%. According to a 1988 University of Alaska study, the state's 12 to 17-year-olds used marijuana at more than twice the national average for their age group. This clear harm motivated Alaska voters to recriminalize marijuana in 1990.
The Netherlands: From 1984 to 1996, the Dutch liberalized the use of cannabis. Surveys reveal that lifetime prevalence of cannabis in Holland increased consistently and sharply. For the age group 18-20, the increase is from 15 percent in 1984 to 44 percent in 1996. When law enforcement officially turned a blind eye to marijuana, there were three criminal organizations in Amsterdam. Despite marijuana "regulation" in 1996, today there are many more criminal organizations in the city than before legalization.
California's failed experiment with so-called "medicinal marijuana" in 1996 has resulted today in the half-legalization of marijuana, where most adults and even minors can buy and smoke pot. "In Los Angeles County there are more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks," said Assemblyman Curt Hagman, a Chino Hills Republican and vice-chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
Background from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
Legalization of drugs leads to increased use and increased addiction »
"Medical" marijuana facts »
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SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. We stand for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.
