Friday, April 3, 2009

Slangin': Elementary Edition

From Pennsylvania:

'COURAGEOUS' ELEMENTARY STUDENT TURNED IN POT BEARER, DISTRICT SAYS

City school district officials are crediting a "courageous" student with reporting another student who police said brought 11 bags of marijuana to Morton Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia on Tuesday.

The 10-year-old boy who allegedly brought the drugs and gave some to three other students was suspended and likely will be transferred to an alternative program the district runs for students in grades three through five, said Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman.
Well, regardless of your position on drug policy, it's a bad thing when 10-year-old kids have access to any kind of psychoactive substance. Prohibitionists consistently oppose any form of legalization, decriminalization, or even medical marijuana program on the basis that all of them would "make it easier for kids to get drugs." I don't know how much legalization would facilitate access to drugs for youngsters, but it seems like we can't even stop that now. And it's worth noting that we aren't reading a story about a kid getting caught peddling liquor to his classmates. In fact, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) found that teens can get marijuana more easily than cigarettes or alcohol. Here are some notable quotes from the 2008 report:

Marijuana continues to be easier to buy than beer: 23 percent of teens find it easiest to buy compared to 15 percent who find beer easiest to buy.

Half of 16- and 17-year olds say that among their age group smoking marijuana is more common than smoking cigarettes.
Here are some quotes from previous reports:

Almost 10 million 12- to 17-year olds (37 percent) say they can buy marijuana within a day, and 4.4 million (17 percent) can buy marijuana in an hour or less. (2007)

The good news is that cigarettes are tougher for teens to buy this year. The bad news is that marijuana is easier. (2000)
Maybe it's not so simple after all. Maybe by creating a legal, regulated market we could actually reduce teen access to marijuana. It's commonly thrown around in drug policy reform forums, but it really does ring true: Drug dealers don't ask for ID.

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