Marijuana vs. Alcohol: A made-up story brought to you by the MJ lobby

[The following post on adolescent substance abuse and the fight over legalizing marijuana is reposted with permission from Jim Gogek's excellent new blog, alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, or atodblog.com for short. I recommend you bookmark it - I have. Also, hat tip to Minnesota Recovery Connection for bringing the Join Together story on Gogek's blog to my attention. -Ed.]
One of the craziest arguments from the marijuana lobby is that young people should smoke marijuana because it’s less dangerous than alcohol. We were recently subjected to the strange spectacle of a group of mothers in Colorado pushing for marijuana legalization because alcohol is so dangerous for kids. There’s a whole organization dedicated to this cause. I’ll let you find the website yourself.

The depth of the MJ lobby’s narcissistic defense of intoxication amazes me. Both alcohol AND marijuana are bad for kids, and neither mothers nor anybody else should want children using either one. Anyway, this whole marijuana vs. booze idea is a made-up story.
 
There is no evidence that if kids smoke marijuana they won’t drink alcohol. On the contrary, research data shows that the two drugs are used in tandem by teens. From 1975 to 1978, the percentage of teens using marijuana grew – and so did the percentage of teens drinking. Then marijuana use began to drop, and so did teen drinking, through 1992. Since then, marijuana use climbed, remained steady and then dipped slightly, while alcohol use remained steady and then dipped slightly, through binge drinking has increased.
 
This information comes from the massive Monitoring the Future project by University of Michigan, which concludes:

“… There is little evidence that supports what we have termed ‘the displacement hypothesis,’ which asserts that an increase in marijuana use will somehow lead to a decline in alcohol use, or vice versa. Instead, both substances appear to move more in harmony…”

If we legalize marijuana, kids will be able to get it more easily. Meanwhile, easy access to alcohol will continue. So marijuana legalization will mean that we will have more kids smoking marijuana AND drinking alcohol. That’s not what we want as a society, I don’t think.
 

Jim Gogek is a veteran journalist who has written about research-based solutions to alcohol, tobacco, and drug (ATOD) problems for 20 years. He has completed two fellowships on communicating about substance abuse and worked as communications director for a national substance abuse research institute, director of an underage drinking prevention program and communications consultant to health organizations.

[Photo above taken from atodblog.com post.]