Marijuana legalization & marketing to teenagers

Proponents of marijuana legalization in Washington say that their initiative will protect kids by restricting marijuana advertising.  However, if you read the text of I-502, you will soon realize that their restrictions are minimal and similar to alcohol advertising regulations.  As we know, alcohol ads are pervasive and have a negative impact on youth in our communities.

I-502 does not restrict advertising in broadcast media, print media, or the Internet.  Recently, alcohol marketing through digital media has exploded.  Marijuana marketing would be no different.

I-502 does not ban marijuana ads that appeal to youth.  Alcohol and tobacco companies continue to market their products to young people even when disavowing any efforts to do so.  Despite regulations, alcohol advertisements continue to associate drinking with being sexy, popular, and fun -- portrayals that are extremely enticing to teenagers.  If legalized, distributors would quickly recognize the profitability of portraying marijuana in the same manner. 

Find out more at WASAVP's Marijuana Education Toolkit.

Medical associations against marijuana legalization

What do medical organizations think about marijuana legalization?  Read the statements below . . .


The American Medical Association’s Policy Statement on Cannabis
Our AMA believes that (1) cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is a public health concern; (2) sale and posesession of marijuana should not be legalized.

The American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Marijuana Legalization

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes the legalization of marijuana. 

Substance abuse by adolescents is an ongoing concern of pediatricians.  Marijuana is the illicit substance most commonly abused by adolescents.  Any change in the legal status of marijuana, even if limited to adults, could affect the prevalence of use among adolescents.  For example, tobacco and alcohol products, both legal for adults 18 and 21 years of age, respectively, are the psychoactive substances most widely abused by adolescents. 

The American Society of Addiction Medicine Marijuana Policy Position

Since 1994, the American Society of Addiction Medicine has held as policy that we oppose any changes in law and regulation that would lead to a sudden significant increase in the availablity of any dependence-producing drug.  This policy includes marijuana, a mood-altering drug capable of producing dependence as well as serious negative mental, emotional, behavioral and physical consequences.  

Learn more by visiting WASAVP's Marijuana Education Toolkit! 

Would legalizing marijuana rid WA of drug trafficking organizations?

As our state continues debating the legal status of marijuana, one of the issues for consideration is how to eliminate the drug trafficking organizations that bring marijuana into our state.  Will changing the legal status of marijuana get rid of illegal drug organizations in Washington?

A recent edition of the New York Times Magazine features an article about drug trafficking.  The article mostly focuses on a Mexican drug cartel that "is responsible for as much as half of the illegal narcotics imported into the United States from Mexico each year."  Most of the article is about their cocaine trade but includes this about marijuana:

"Moving cocaine is a capital-intensive business, but the cartel subsidizes these investments with a ready source of easy income: marijuana. Cannabis is often described as the “cash crop” of Mexican cartels because it grows abundantly in the Sierras and requires no processing. But it’s bulkier than cocaine, and smellier, which makes it difficult to conceal."

These large organizations don't only deal with cocaine and marijuana:

"Heroin is easier to smuggle but difficult to produce, and as detailed in court documents, Chapo (the head of the cartel) is particularly proud of his organization’s work with the drug. He personally negotiates shipments to the United States and stands by its quality, which is normally 94 percent pure. “The value-to-weight ratio of heroin is better than any other drug,” says Alejandro Hope, who until recently was a senior officer at Cisen, Mexico’s equivalent to the C.I.A. 


But the future of the business may be methamphetamine. During the 1990s, when the market for meth exploded in the United States, new regulations made it more difficult to manufacture large quantities of the drug in this country. This presented an opportunity that the Sinaloa (cartel) quickly exploited. According to Anabel Hernández, author of “Los Señores del Narco,” a book about the cartel, it was one of Chapo’s deputies, a trafficker named Ignacio (Nacho) Coronel, who first spotted the massive potential of methamphetamine. “Nacho was like Steve Jobs,” Hernández told me. “He saw the future.” 


Here was a drug that was ragingly addictive and could be produced cheaply and smuggled with relative ease. When they first started manufacturing meth, the Sinaloa would provide free samples to their existing wholesale clients in the Midwest. “They’d send five hundred pounds of marijuana, and secreted in that would be two kilos of meth,” Jack Riley, the D.E.A.’s special agent in charge of the Chicago office, told me. “They’d give it away for free. They wanted the market.”