English FAQ’s : 2024
English FAQs in 2023
1. How would legalizing marijuana or any drug make it a safer world for my 15 year old teenager?
A. The police will have millions of extra hours to arrest the pedophiles in social media, the deadly DUI driver, terrorists blowing up Christmas parties – when they stop wasting time on marijuana and other drugs. In Colorado, per published reports, detectives ARE arresting more felons. Oregon decrimed all drugs in 2021 – thus freeing up thousands of hours by reducing car searches for a few grams of drugs and then arresting the driver. Legalize/regulate marijuana would eliminate the street dealers who always are ready to sell your teen, no ID needed. For 35 years even the federal government admits that it is easier for kids to buy pot than beer.
B. No teen will have the job option to sell marijuana. Many ‘good’ kids sell it for profit, excitement or to be popular. This causes some to be arrested, shot and killed.
2. If you legalize/regulate, won’t millions of people start using the illegal drugs, causing more social chaos?
A. No. COP has spoken to 9 doctors all board certified in addiction psychiatry. All agree that there will be very few who will experiment with hard drugs. Some may switch from wine and whiskey to marijuana to relax. However there is no research; not in the USA, not in any country. Any possible increase in new, hard-drug use will be offset by fewer trying illegal drugs for the first time, when the glamor, rebellion and excitement of breaking the law, the -forbidden fruit – are gone.
B. Use common sense. Who is going to wake up and decide to take heroin, meth, etc? just because it is legal. The best medical info is that there are extremely few people who want to try heroin and the same person is so sensible and smart to wait for it to be legal. It is almost impossible to have such a personality. Try offering an adult free tobacco cigarettes and see how many decide to smoke them.
C. In 1914 when you could buy marijuana, heroin & cocaine from the pharmacy, about 1-2 % of Americans were abusing hard drugs. 100 years later was still about 2 % This number has increased in the past 10 years, due to the proliferation of OxyContin.
D. 2008 a Zogby polled showed less than one percent (new users) would try hard drugs, if they were obtainable at a state-regulated store.
3. If we legalize MJ for adults, drug dealers will target those less than 21, thus making it worse for our kids, right?
A. No. We did not see in 1933 those selling alcohol illegally switch to marketing only those under 21. Moreover, why would a teen drive to the city to buy MJ off the sidewalk, when an older brother or sister will go to the state-regulated store to buy for their sibling?
4. What is going on in Colorado and the other 23 States + DC?
A. Not much to report; A Thundering Silence from legal states. The most important ‘News’ is that teens are smoking at the same levels (19-21%) as before legalization. As some chiefs of police in Michigan stated, “legalization has been a snoozer.”
An important change is state legislatures are passing legalization versus achieving that goal thru a referendum. .
5. Won’t there always be drug dealers, a black market?
A. NO. Our experience with alcohol prohibition = 99% of smugglers and moonshine stills were out of business in 1937. When the illegal drugs are sold at a state-regulated store, the price for them should be set at a price that the black market cannot match and yet high enough to deter youth from using more.
6. What is the experience in countries that have legalized drugs?
A. First ask yourself this question. In what country is prohibition working?
B. No country has legalized the production and sale of all drugs
C. Switzerland…Swiss Heroin Maintenance Program since 1994 (government provided heroin) …80% reduction in felony crime, 70% reduction in new cases of HIV, hepatitis B and no one has died of an overdose. This program is so successful that Germany adopted it in 2009. In 2006 the Swiss health ministry reported that new users of heroin have been reduced. COP’s Howard Wooldridge has been to a clinic in Switzerland in 2001, 08 and 2016. Fluent in French and German, Howard spoke to police officers who love the program because of the reduction in crime.
7. Will COP’s ideas stop our children from getting these drugs?
A. No. However, when law enforcement is allowed to focus only on underage sales and possession, we will be slightly more effective. Teens will still be able to access these drugs via older siblings, etc. like they currently do with cigarettes and beer. HOWEVER, teens will not come personally in contact with a drug dealer who may offer a free sample of heroin, etc. Remember, there is no solution to drugs, only approaches.
8. How would the drugs be sold or distributed?
A. As a starting point for discussion, we could give marijuana and really all currently illegal drugs the same regulations and restrictions as alcohol, minus advertising. We would sell marijuana at a good profit but not enough to cause a black market. Drugs like cocaine and heroin could be sold in stores currently selling marijuana. The destruction of the illicit market and no teens employed in the drug trade would be the number one objective in a post-prohibition world.
9. Won’t legalized marijuana result in more stoned drivers on the road?
A. No, at least in Colorado. The net number of DUI drivers is about the same, per mile traveled. There has been a slight increase in arrests for DUIM and a slight decrease of DUI alcohol. The vast majority of drivers do not drive under the influence of alcohol or any drug. It will always be illegal to drive intoxicated on any drug. However, legalizing/regulating would not all of a sudden make marijuana users irresponsible, same as most drinkers don’t drive drunk. The number of people killed currently by drivers under the influence of marijuana is so small, the federal government did not even keep stats on it, until a few years ago. Indeed, if and when people switch to marijuana from alcohol and drive, the number of accidents would go down.
10. Will there be less crime or more, if we legalize all drugs?
A. Much less. Inside a treatment program the Swiss reduced the felony crime rate by 80% by having state clinics distribute heroin. Even better, the police could once again focus on the drunk driver, the child molester, terrorists. In the USA in 2024 a solid 70% of felony crime is caused by the prohibition of drugs, not their use. America will be a much safer place when drug prohibition is in the history books.
10. It is immoral to take mind-altering drugs, right?
COP is not qualified to speak on matters of morality. We suggest you contact your religious adviser and ask him/her what drugs and food are moral for you to take. Since most of this audience is Christian, I will give you Proverbs 31:6 “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.” Thus, God condones the use of mind-altering, addictive drugs in certain situations. COPs urges all of you to be as drug-free as possible. However, the Jewish and Christian religions condone and encourage the use of the second deadliest drug on the planet = alcohol.
11. What would you propose in the short term/do now?
A. Adopt the Oregon and Portugal Approach and decrim all drugs in personal amounts. Oregon became the first decrim all drugs state in 2021. More states should follow in 24.
B. Treatment for addicts on the first day they ask for it.
12. Won’t legalize/regulate send the wrong message that the drugs are now safe and okay to use?
A. NO. Legalize/regulate will normalize our approach to all drugs. All drugs from aspirin and Tylenol to marijuana and amphetamines have risks and dangers. Today’s message is confusing. Keep in mind that the two deadliest drugs in America, tobacco and alcohol become legal at 18 and 21. No parent tells their children to begin using them, when they come of age where it is legal for them to do so. The glamor and rebellion factors of a drug being a forbidden fruit will be eliminated with the repeal of prohibition.
13. What can I do?
A. Become informed. Vote. Become a member of Citizens Opposing Prohibition. Add your voice to the many millions who say: Enough Already!
Drug Prohibition/War on Drugs has been the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow.
2023 Cheerful News from Colorado re: Cannabis Legalization/Regulation/Taxation
Cannabis became legal in December 2012. Stores opened on January 1, 2014. In 2023 there are 1000 plus stores and companies employing some 34,000 tax-paying workers.
In order of importance:
Teen use unchanged in 2012, thru 2020: Source: Center for Disease Control – Youth Risky Behavior Survey and a SAMSHA (Fed Agency) report in 2015
Fatal Car Accidents involving DUI marijuana drivers remains relatively unchanged thru 2015 per miles driven: a major increase was predicted by Prohibitionists.
Drivers testing positive for THC were overrepresented in the crash-involved (case) population. However, when demographic factors (age and gender) and alcohol use were controlled, the study did not find an increase in population-based crash risk associated with THC use. from National Hwy Traffic Safety Admin….translation = use of MJ does not increase risk of car accident overall.
Crime rates are unaffected by legalization per Colorado-based law enforcement
60 million saved in law enforcement costs (court time, police overtime, probation, etc) each year
Combined tax revenue thru 2022 was circa 2,5 billion. Up from ZERO in 2013.
Unhappy News from Colorado
Number of homeless has increased (moving in from other states and reflects a national trend)
States bordering Colorado are not happy, due to their evidence and courtrooms being over-filled with cases involving CO MJ.
Mexican Cartels are not happy. Premium CO cannabis is being exported to Mexico and has penetrated their upper-end market, taking away market share from the Cartels inferior quality marijuana. The wholesale price of MX MJ has dropped by half since 2013. Source: Mexican rep to the United Nations
In Colorado the illicit retail market, though shrinking, is still robust. 30% of all MJ purchased (130 tons total) in 2017 was NOT bought at a state-regulated store – per state agency. The percentage purchased in state-regulated stores continues to climb slowly as prices drop.
Respectfully submitted,
Howard J. Wooldridge
Drug Policy Specialist – Citizens Opposing Prohibition.org
Assistance from Council on Responsible Cannabis Regulation (CRCR) in preparing this document is appreciated
Resources
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released a report on marijuana related health concerns. Several key findings are encouraging:
“For adults and adolescents, past-month marijuana use has not changed since legalization either in terms of the number of people using or the frequency of use among users.”
• “Based on the most comprehensive data available, past-month marijuana use among Colorado adolescents is nearly identical to the national average.”
• “Daily or near-daily marijuana use among adults is much lower than daily or near-daily alcohol or tobacco use. Among adolescents, past month marijuana use is lower than past month alcohol use.”
• “Marijuana exposure calls to the poison center appear to be decreasing since 2015, including unintentional exposures in children ages 0-8 years.”
• The estimated percentage of women in Colorado who used marijuana during pregnancy is “not statistically different” from the national average.
