A new survey showing, among other things, a slight uptick in teen marijuana use, got considerable press yesterday and today. A widely-circulated Associated Press story, along with many other reports, included this claim: “The increase of teens smoking pot is partly because the national debate over medical use of marijuana can make the drugs seem safer to teenagers, researchers said.”

Baloney. [Read more →]

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The federal government just released the latest ‘Monitoring the Future’ survey of teen drug use, and the results do not bode well for current policies. More high school seniors report smoking marijuana in the past 30 days than smoked cigarettes: 20.6 percent vs. 20.1 percent. And marijuana use is up (albeit in the same general range it’s been in for several years) while teen cigarette smoking continues to decline, and has dropped markedly since the early ‘90s.

Regulation of tobacco, combined with solid educational campaigns, has clearly cut youth access to cigarettes. It’s time for officials to take off their blinders and apply those same proven policies to marijuana.

Oh, and just in case someone tries to blame medical marijuana laws for the rise in teen marijuana use, use by teens has actually gone down in the medical marijuana states.

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While I was in the green room waiting to debate Calvina Fay on Fox Business News today (we’re working on getting the video posted), former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sat down next to me to wait for his interview on the sister Fox News Channel.

After exchanging some small talk, he asked me what I was going to be talking about on TV.  After telling him that MPP was the organization that ran those ads in California last week that touted how taxing marijuana could help some of the California government’s budget crisis, he said, “Well, I can’t say I’m supportive of that.  I have a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old to worry about.”  I responded, “Well, I’m not surprised that you’re not supportive.”
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