Since the marijuana debate is now in full force, I thought I’d add some more data to the mix. I think it’s pretty damn obvious that making marijuana legal, as in Colorado, will increase usage. Making marijuana more widely available, as with medical marijuana, especially in the wild and crazy regulatory scheme of California, would also do the same. That’s my general sense. And we’ll get some decent data soon enough. But there is data comparing California’s drug use after its medical marijuana took off with other states with no such provisions – and the results are rather mixed:
Not much to worry about there. Here’s a comparison with Miami:
Miami caught up in 2009, but then faded. Los Angeles, more to the point, barely has any more marijuana use in 2011 than in 2001. This is from the Mark Anderson study I referred to earlier today.
I guess my point is that this may be more of a non-event than we anticipate – again, a bit like marriage equality. And also like marriage equality, federalism is our friend here. I wonder too how big a disincentive for kids to smoke pot will be the sight of their parents going to their favorite store and picking out their preferred strains of CBD/THC and the like. There’s nothing like parental approval to kill off the thrill of the illicit. Maybe, finally, pot will become uncool.
In other matters today, we asked why dogs walk around in circles before they take a dump; why the Freedom Tower has such a disappointing spire; whether the GOP will come to support extending unemployment benefits; and how conservatism can jettison excessive ideology and return to pragmatism.
The most popular post was the Dish’s Correction Of The Decade; next up was a take-down of TED talks. And don’t forget the revolt of the Catholic school kids.
See you later tonight on AC360 Later and in the morning.
(Mosaic: Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy: The Three Wise Men” (named Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar). Detail from: “Mary and Child, surrounded by angels”, mosaic of a Ravennate italian-byzantine workshop, completed within 526 AD by the so-called “Master of Sant’Apollinare”, and photographed by Nina Aldin Thune.)
The Dish 