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Marijuana: What the Evidence Shows at It Relates to the Impact of Use and What Can Be Learned from Washington State and Colorado.”

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Marijuana: What the Evidence Shows at It Relates to the Impact of Use and What Can Be Learned from Washington State and Colorado.” Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D. Director, University of Florida Drug Policy Institute, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Addiction Medicine Director, Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) Author, Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana Before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, State of Oregon January 17, 2013 Written Testimony “Marijuana: What the evidence shows at it relates to the impact of use and what can be learned from Washington State and Colorado.” Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for providing me with the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss marijuana policy and appropriate federal responses. I have studied, researched, and written about drug policy, drug markets, drug prevention, drug treatment, criminal justice policy, addiction, and public policy analysis for almost 18 years. Most recently, from 2009-2011, I served in the Obama Administration as a senior drug policy advisor. I am currently the co-founder, with former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana). I am also the author of Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana (Beaufort). In fact, in my new book, I outline the precise reasons why we in the Obama Administration rejected legalization time and time again when presented with it. Our experience, when talking with parents, prevention and treatment providers, medical associations, law enforcement, and others, was that opening up a legal market for any current illicit drug would be disastrous for public health and safety. Indeed, in the Obama Administration’s inaugural and subsequent drug control strategies, marijuana legalization is explicitly rejected. That is why numerous groups and I found the recent guidance by the U.S. Deputy Attorney General (hereafter “Cole 2013”), deferring the federal government’s right to preempt legalization Washington and Colorado, disturbing. Colorado and Washington are now implementing the first commercial, legal market for marijuana in the world. Here I go through some pertinent issues surrounding marijuana policy that seem to have further muddled the debate: (1) Marijuana’s illegal status, under the Controlled Substances Act, means the drug is more costly and used less than if the drug was legal. By keeping marijuana illegal, its use is lower than the use of our legal drugs. About 52% of Americans regularly drink alcohol, 27% use tobacco products, and yet only 8% 1 currently use marijuana, though this number has been rising in recent years (by about 25% since 2007) as we have become more accepting of marijuana as a country.1 I applaud the way the CSA has been so far used by the federal government – not to go after low-level users with an addiction problem, but instead to target drug traffickers and producers. Now, with the new Cole memo, we are entering a whole new world where those drug traffickers and producers are getting a “green light” from the federal government to proceed. (2) A powerful industry has emerged off the heels of “medical” marijuana and now is transitioning to be ready for full legalization. We are on the brink of creating “Big Marijuana” in this country similar to “Big Tobacco” of yesteryear. I will illustrated some brief examples here: • A September 16th email from “Medical Marijuana Business Daily” read: “the prognosis for the future of the legal cannabis industry has greatly improved....and with that so has the opportunity for investing in what is fast-becoming the next great American industry.”2 • Steve Fox, chief lobbyist for the National Cannabis Industry Association, recently remarked. “Frankly, the real opportunity exists right now” when commenting about marijuana and the banking industry.3 • AdWeek Magazine recently sponsored a Ted-talk like session featuring the self- proclaimed “Martha Stewart of marijuana,”4 • Perhaps most frightening of all, a multimillion dollar private equity fund has launched to support the marijuana industry, with its head commenting that after the Cole 2013 memo his “phone has barely stopped ringing.”5 Already, an executive from Microsoft is teaming up with a former Mexican president to try and “mint more marijuana millionaires than Microsoft” in his goal to create a national brand, the “Starbucks of Marijuana.”6 In states that have failed at creating any sort of robust regulatory framework for marijuana as medicine, the effects of retail marijuana sales are already known – mass marketing and increased negative consequences. Additionally, the multimillion-dollar pro-legalization lobby in Colorado – who financed Amendment 64 with upwards of $3 million – has already placed a billboard promoting 1 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2012 National Survey on 2 Email from Troy Dayton via “MMJ BusinessDaily,” September 16th. Produced upon request. 3 Medical Marijuana Business Daily Article: http://mmjbusinessdaily.com/could-adult-use-marijuana- market-lead-to-relaxed-cannabis-banking-policies/ 4 See http://advertisingweek.com/calendar/-martin-agency-2013-09-24-1200 5 The Economist, see http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21586584-sensible-drug-policy- decision-federal-government-once-tokers-delight 6 Ex-Microsoft exec plans 'Starbucks' of marijuana. (2013, May 31). United Press International. Retrieved from: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/05/31/VIDEO-Ex-Microsoft-exec-plans-Starbucks-of- marijuana/UPI-41161369985400/ 2 marijuana use along the main boulevard leading to the Denver Sports Authority Field. The marijuana industry also sued Colorado when the state sought to place marijuana publications behind a counter in public retail stores “where persons under twenty-one years of age are present.”7 The state eventually changed the law and now magazines such as High Times and The Daily Doobie will be sold within reach of children there. We can expect further first amendment challenges to advertising restrictions. Finally, we have also seen the proliferation of marijuana vending machines generating millions of dollars in revenue dispensing “medicine.” As Bloomberg Businessweek in May reported: “‘We are in the right place at the right time,’ says Bruce Bedrick, a 44-year-old chiropractor, occasional pot user, and chief executive officer of Medbox, maker of one of the world’s first marijuana vending machines. ‘We are planning to literally dominate the industry.’”8 After spending decades trying to rid America of tobacco vending machines because of the obvious effect on increased access to children, it seems we are about to repeat history by creating the next big industry that will profit from increased use and addiction. (3) The experience of Colorado and Washington thus far should give anyone who cares about public health and safety pause about legalization. Colorado allowed the retail sales of marijuana to start on January 1st, 2014. Last week, Colorado made history as the first jurisdiction in the modern era to license the retail sales of marijuana. To be sure, there were no bloody fistfights among people waiting in line and, as far as we know, no burglaries or robberies. Legalization advocates cheered. And while it is true that most people who use marijuana won’t become addicted to heroin or otherwise hurt society as a result, Colorado’s experiment with legal pot can be called anything but successful. What didn’t make the news were some troubling developments. Multimillion-dollar private investing groups have emerged and poised to become, in their words, “Big Marijuana;” adding her name to a list of dozens of other children, a 2-year-old girl ingested a marijuana cookie and had to receive immediate medical attention; a popular website boldly discussed safe routes for smugglers to bring marijuana into neighboring states; and a marijuana store owner proudly proclaimed that Colorado would soon be the destination of choice for 18-21 year-olds, even though for them marijuana is still supposed to be legal. Popular columnists spanning the ideological spectrum, from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Newsweek/Daily Beast, soon expressed their disapproval of such policies as contributing to the dumbing down of America. As I mentioned in my testimony last October to the US Senate Judiciary Committee, since states have proven they cannot handle the task of regulating “medical” marijuana, why would we expect them to deal deftly with full legalization? Mass advertising, promotion, using items that are attractive to kids – like “medical marijuana lollipops,” “Ring Pots,” “Pot-Tarts” etc. – are all characteristics of current “medical” marijuana policy. 7 Trans-High Corp v Colorado (Denver) 8 See http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-09/medbox-dawn-of-the-marijuana-vending-machine 3 What has been the result of this de facto legalization for kids? For one, drug-related referrals for high school students testing positive for marijuana have increased. During 2007 – 2009 an average of 5.6 students tested positive for marijuana. Between 2010 and 2012, the average number of students who tested positive for marijuana increased to 17.3 students per year. In 2007, tests positive for marijuana made up 33 percent of the total !drug screenings, by 2012 that number increased to 57 percent. A member of the Colorado Taskforce charged to regulate marijuana who also works for a drug testing company commented to the press that “A typical kid (is) between 50 and 100 nanograms. Now we’re seeing these up in the over 500, 700, 800, climbing.”9 It has also already been documented by Justice Department
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