[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by bbbbbb

Hi, we all have nice packaged theories about the WEED!

I have seen it, no I do not and have not used it.

On the West Coast, they have it, real legal and real accessible in Oregon and Washington.

We used to advise and Tutor School age children on the benefits of going to college, how to prepare to get an advance education, how to find financial aid to go to College. Believe me, there is an abundance of money available to get aid and go to college, the child needs to want it,,,,,,,,,,,,, the parent needs to want it.
In the small town where we lived, we personally found children who were good students, then they started on the WEED. Then we see them behind the furniture store, behind the market, smoking and sharing the smoke with very young about 10 year old boys and girls. WE have seen this folks, we have seen them drop out of the College Prep Program after they start smoking. How about this? What if it was your child?
Young Tommy was an A student, was going to be a Scientist, was a real achiever in sports, in academics, did a lot of volunteer work in the community garden. Well, Tommy started smoking, on our last visit, he had smoke on is breath and I asked him about it,,,,, Well he said all of us get together and share a joint while on lunch break, soon after he dropped out of school, was arrested for shoplifting, was in jail, was transferred to some boys program by the State. Hey, do all the theorizing you want, Marijuana may be OK for the people in pain, but it goes a long way to ruining a lot of young people. We saw it. We do know first hand.

bbbbbb

I think we can all come up with anecdotal stories about kids using/abusing alcohol...and the same thing happening to them.

One of the benefits that I see of legalization, is that it can now be more tightly controlled and more effort spent ensuring that kids don't start using it.

Raising taxes on cigarettes has shown to be an effective way to stop kids from smoking...because they now can't afford it.

Quite frankly, I personally believe that we should be doing the same on beer & alcohol (I'm sure there will be some wailing over that ).


https://www.acscan.org/content/wp-co...ct%20Sheet.pdf

Regular, significant increases in the retail price
of cigarettes reduce the number of people who begin
smoking
and increase the number of smokers who quit.

• For every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, there is a 4 percent reduction in overall cigarette consumption 13 and a 6.5 percent reduction in youth consumption.

• Low-income adults, youth, and pregnant women are especially likely to quit or reduce their smoking
when the price increases.

• Lower smoking rates translate into fewer smoking-related cancers and premature deaths, reduced
spending on smoking-related health problems, and mo
re productive workers.

So control it, tax the you-know-what out of it...and take it out of the alley's.