Proponents of prohibition often attempt to sandbag the issue of legal marijuana by pounding fear into the minds of the average citizen that any effort to loosen the nation’s drug penalties will result in anarchist youth, overdose, and a complete top-sizing of civil society. However, the latest statistics from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice finds that not only are these claims untrue, but laws that decriminalize and legalize marijuana might actually be the answer to sustaining a somewhat fruitful nation.
So, while the threat of teenaged downtrodden dragging modern civilization into the screaming depths of hell still has a large percentage of the American populous skeptical of legal weed, a dissection, of sorts, into the state of California where marijuana has been fully decriminalized since 2011, indicates the panic surrounding this issue is not at all necessary.
“Marijuana decriminalization in California has not resulted in harmful consequences for teenagers, such as increased crime, drug overdose, driving under the influence, or school dropout. In fact, California teenagers showed improvements in all risk areas after reform,” according to the report.
Although a study released earlier this year suggests a correlation between cannabis use and an increase in teenage dropouts, the latest data indicates nothing could be further from the truth…at least not in California. In fact, across the state, teenage dropout rates have diminished 22 percent since pot was decriminalized, which certainly dismisses the idea that children are destined to give up on themselves in the midst of legalization.
“By a variety of measures, California’s teenage behaviors actually improved dramatically after marijuana was effectively legalized — improvements that occurred more weakly or not at all among older Californians and among teenagers nationwide,” wrote the study authors.
Although researchers are not suggesting the outcome of the report has anything to do with decriminalization in California, there is definitely an interesting tale here for the ages. It has been two years since the state passed a measure to decriminalize weed, and so far, the majority of the youth in The Golden State appear to be getting along just fine.
The truth is prohibition is more of a detriment to civil society than legal marijuana could ever hope to be. In fact, contrary to lips of Republicans, there is no second coming of the devil himself waiting to appear on the White House lawn the day the federal government finally gets over itself long enough to do what is right for the greater good of the social order. No sir, there are no dark days to follow the end of prohibition because if there were, California would have experienced this backlash nearly 20 years ago after becoming the first state to legalize medical marijuana.
Mike Adams writes for stoners and smut enthusiasts in High Times, Playboy’s The Smoking Jacket and Hustler Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @adamssoup and on Facebook/mikeadams73.
