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BY MARY PAT ANGELINI
COMMENTARY
Today's teenagers seem to be growing up faster than previous generations. Advances in technology have catapulted the use of cell phones and computers from once being solely used as business tools into everyday necessities that define a teen's world. While this technologically savvy generation will surely benefit from growing up accustomed to these skills, not all of the cultural advances will prove to have a positive influence on our youth. One of the most alarming differences in young adults, as compared to past generations, is their drug use.
According to a 2009 study performed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, while cigarette use among the nation's teenagers has decreased, the use of marijuana has increased. The federal study on students also reported a higher use of prescription painkillers and a diminishing awareness about the risk of these illicit drugs.
A national survey by the Department of Health and Human Services showed that of the 7.1 million Americans who abuse illegal drugs, more than sixty percent abuse marijuana. With national data already showing softening attitudes and across the board increase for drug use, particularly marijuana, legalizing medical marijuana will lead to a certain and significant increase in marijuana use in New Jersey.
Despite the many studies that highlight the risks of legalizing this drug, the New Jersey Legislature recently voted to legalize medical marijuana in our state. As the Executive Director of a nonprofit agency which provides substance abuse prevention programs to youth in Monmouth County, I know the current struggle teens have with this drug as well as the harmful path that will been paved if the drug is easier to access. In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that medical marijuana is one of the causes of an increase in teen marijuana use. According to a recent study, ten of the fifteen states with the highest percentage of teens admitting to smoking marijuana in the last 30 days have lived in states with medical marijuana programs.
However, easier access will soon become a reality in New Jersey now that Governor Jon Corzine has signed A-804 into law. In fact, patients will only have to be 18 years of age to be prescribed medical marijuana, which is the age of many high school seniors. Further, recent amendments to the bill double the amount of marijuana that can be possessed from one ounce to two ounces per month, which means an 18 year old high school senior can legally walk around with 240 joints. In addition, the bill allows "for profit" medical marijuana stores to promote and sell marijuana just like the "pot shops" in California neighborhoods. These medical marijuana dispensaries have also been reported to have led to an increase in robberies and drug abuse in the surrounding areas.
I have long advocated against this bill and strongly feel that legalizing medical marijuana in New Jersey would be a terrible mistake with dire consequences. Further, any state considering medical marijuana should look very closely at the abuse that resulted in California.
In addition to all of the societal consequences, the bill would place a financial burden on the residents of New Jersey by requiring the state to employ the Departments of Health and Senior Services, Agriculture, Law and Public Safety, Health and Senior Services, as well as the New Jersey State Police. It is also troubling that the Legislature and not trained scientists will now decide which medicines are safe treatments for chronic diseases. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which studies and approves all medicines in the United States, has made it very clear that the raw marijuana plant is not medicine. Clearly, taking this authority from scientists and giving it to politicians is a gross bastardization of the process of researching and approving medicines in this country.
In the coming months Governor Chris Christie's choice for the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services will be required to issue regulations that will govern how this policy is implemented. As such, I urge Governor Christie to direct his appointee for this important role to be mindful of the many dangers associated with this new policy. In addition, I am hopeful that his administration will endeavor to combat the increase in marijuana use among our state's young people that will likely result from this dramatic shift in New Jersey's drug policy.
Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini represents New Jersey's 11th Legislative District.
First of all, you acknowledge that illicit use of painkillers is a problem among our youth. This is absolutely true. The opiates are extremely addictive and dangerous, but legal. They are also ineffective for many of the patients to whom they are prescribed. I know personally a patient with muscular dystrophy who previously had to sell his opiate prescriptions -- which made his condition much worse -- illegally in order to afford marijuana. And guess what? The marijuana was not only an effective medicine, but it has zero side effects and is not addictive.
Who the hell are you to deny sick patients medical treatment? You are absolutely unqualified to make these sort of decisions. If you want to have a voice in the medical community, then you should return to school and get a degree in medicine. Until then, let the experts do their jobs.
From another angle, to think that marijuana will be more readily available to teens is pretty far-fetched. Why? Because the markets are already saturated. Your high schools are flooded with marijuana already because kids like to smoke pot. The law has never stopped anyone from doing it. It has simply criminalized them and created artificial consequences for an otherwise harmless behavior. The facts about the plant (it's not really a drug per se, though it does contain very many) are that it is one of the most versatile on the planet and has been used by humans for thousands of years without consequence. Its demonization is a recent phenomenon perpetuated by racist and greedy politicos who are motivated by corporate interests. If you truly want to represent your community then you will do some research (and perhaps consult a logic text for how to establish a valid argument) before you continue your crusade against terminally ill patients.
See you next Tuesday,
Ian.
"According to a 2009 study performed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, while cigarette use among the nation's teenagers has decreased, the use of marijuana has increased. The federal study on students also reported a higher use of prescription painkillers and a diminishing awareness about the risk of these illicit drugs."
My point exactly!!! Do you, Miss MARY PAT ANGELINI, believe that teenage use of cigarettes going down is bad thing?? I've been an avid medical marijuana supporter for quite some time, and from the thousand of papers and journals I've read on the topic, I've never heard of somebody dieing from smoking marijuana. However, we all know the dangers and negative health effects of smoking cigarettes, and nobody seems to care about it. We, in New Jersey, have to be 19 years old to purchase cigarettes, yet you can't go to a high-school in the state that doesn't have a population of cigarette smokers. What does this tell you? It tells me that you can't stop people, especially kids, from doing what they want to. Isn't that what America was based on, freedom??
And to say that legalizing marijuana for terminal patients will make it more accessible for kids is just, sorry to say this, moronic. Everyday, DEADLY pharmaceutical drugs are prescribed to patients with prescriptions and they do get to the kids or "hit the streets". Does this mean these drugs should be illegal? Of coarse not. Patients in pain need something to take care of their pain, and to keep a medicine from these people is wrong.
Marijuana will be accessible in New Jersey whether it is legal OR illegal. If you knew a terminal patient like I do, you would cry to see the pain they go through on a daily basis. And to keep a medicine that takes their pain away is simply wrong and selfish. And I totally agree with Mr. Wolski, that seeing cancer patients or AIDS/HIV patients using this drug doesn't glamorize it. To me, it actually demoralizes it. Who would wish that upon themselves? You anti-marijuana "experts" are simply stuck in the past.
In conclusion, I just want to say that this whole state / country / world could be a more beautiful place if people would simply open their mind to new things instead of simply shooting it down because of your past notion that this plant is bad. Have a heart, help the sick, and heal the world.
The Center also addressed the issues of abuse and diversion. The Center noted that no state that has passed a medical marijuana law has subsequently experienced an increase in recreational marijuana use among its children and youth. The NJ law’s multiple safeguards against abuse and diversion of medical marijuana provide further reassurance that teen marijuana use will not increase as a result of patient access to medical marijuana under prescriber supervision. NJ’s law is the most restrictive of all the states’ medical marijuana laws. (Currently, thirteen states, covering about 25% of the U.S. population, have working medical marijuana programs.)
I invite Ms. Angelini to read the entire Seton Hall position paper at: http://www.healthreformwatch.com/2009/08/26/position-paper-in-support-of-the-new-jersey-compassionate-use-medical-marijuana-act/
This, after all, only confirms the common sense view that teens do not find it glamorous when they see cancer patients and AIDS patients using marijuana. Use of marijuana by seriously ill patients deglamorizes it for teens. Indeed, teens have all the access to marijuana that they want already, without medical marijuana being legal in New Jersey. Government surveys have shown that for the past 30 years in a row, over 80% of NJ high school seniors have said that marijuana is “easy to get” or “fairly easy to get.” It’s hard to imagine that getting any worse. It is only the legitimate patients who find access to marijuana difficult.
I also question why Ms. Angelini, who is so outspoken against medical mariujuana, never bothered to vote against the bill when it passed in the Assembly on January 11, 2010. See: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp I’m sure she’s not a negligent legislator. Perhaps any vote on the issue would represent a “conflict of interest” with her work in substance abuse prevention. After all, substance abuse treatment programs potentially benefit by having medical marijuana illegal. Patients who are arrested for using marijuana may be given a choice of going to jail or going to a substance abuse treatment program. Which would you choose? From this perspective, Ms. Angelini’s column itself gives the appearance of a conflict of interest.