{"id":8513,"date":"2012-09-13T12:53:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T12:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=8513"},"modified":"2013-02-21T13:02:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T13:02:26","slug":"so-called-medical-marijuana-results-in-increased-use-by-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2012\/09\/so-called-medical-marijuana-results-in-increased-use-by-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"So-called \u2018medical marijuana\u2019 results in increased use by youth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\"><br \/>\nCommunity groups from around the state of California celebrated the fact that neither marijuana legalization nor an expansion of the current \u201cmedical\u201d marijuana system will be on the statewide ballot this November. The Secretary of State\u2019s office has confirmed that none of the six pro-legalization measures gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Legalization failed in 2010 and last July the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban \u201cmedical\u201d marijuana storefronts.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may be seeing the beginning of the end for marijuana advocates in our state,\u201d noted John Redman, Executive Director of Californians for Drug-Free Youth (CADFY), the state\u2019s oldest anti-drug coalition. \u201cAfter sixteen years of experimenting with de facto legalization, the majority of Californians who don\u2019t smoke marijuana have realized that more marijuana availability isn\u2019t good for our kids or our state.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>Initiatives 1516, 1518, 1524, 1544, 1571, and 1579 varied in their specific provisions. Initiatives 1516, 1518, 1524 and 1544 would have essentially legalized marijuana, whereas initiatives 1571 and 1579 would have expanded medical marijuana and legalized industrial hemp. Prevention and youth advocates feared these initiatives would have further pushed up drug use rates in the state.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen a direct correlation between increase marijuana availability through dispensaries and increased youth marijuana use,\u201d remarked Aaron Byzak, President of the Vista, California based North Coastal Prevention Coalition (NCPC).  <\/p>\n<p>Two peer-reviewed studies published in prominent scientific journals in late 2011 reveal that states with mature medical marijuana programs, like California, have youth marijuana rates significantly higher than states without such programs. This has translated to a significant increase in marijuana use over the last five years.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a time it appeared that we were losing ground as we fought for the future of our kids,\u201d Byzak continued. \u201cBut it appears that the people of California have seen through the smoke screen and chosen a healthy future.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPreventionists in California can finally breathe a huge sigh of relief,\u201d Redman commented. \u201cAnd focus on preventing marijuana use before it ever starts.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p><em>Source:  Press Release Californians for Drug Free Youth  August 30th 2012<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Community groups from around the state of California celebrated the fact that neither marijuana legalization nor an expansion of the current \u201cmedical\u201d marijuana system will be on the statewide ballot this November. The Secretary of State\u2019s office has confirmed that none of the six pro-legalization measures gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Legalization [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,19,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marijuana-and-medicine","category-usa","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}