Even if marijuana was legalized in the state of California, strict child regulation and education is the responsibility of parents

By Alexandra Brell
February 2nd, 2010
Section: Opinions

Even if marijuana was legalized in the state of California, strict child regulation and education is the responsibility of parents. Photo Credit: Rick Loomis/MCT

Last week, the Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance that will shut down hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries within the next few months. Medicinal marijuana use is legal, but any move around this subject spurns greater debate of the legalization of recreational marijuana use in the city and state.

There is an enormous amount of information to analyze that supports both sides of the argument. Examples include cost of regulation, tax revenue potential, a possible rise or decrease in drug related violence and health concerns.

However, there is an argument I cannot buy into revolving around children. I have read arguments against legalization because it will be more accessible to youth and sends the “wrong message” condoning pot smoking.

If marijuana does become legal then parents have some work to do. If kids are determined, legalization is not going to stop them from seeking out their first pot-related experience nor will it curtail their current smoking habits.

I think two distinct elements are necessary, with regard to children, as we consider the great pot debate: strict regulation and education.

There is plenty of regulation in place for adult-only activities: alcohol use, tobacco sales, and purchasing firearms. While sometimes challenging to control everything to 100 percent compliance, it can be done with some success.

Just as a teenager cannot stroll into a liquor store for an after-school treat of Absolut or a fifth of Jack Daniels, similar laws would apply to pot. According to AB390, a bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) the possession, sale and cultivation of marijuana would apply only to people 21 years and older; just like buying alcohol.

The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, which you’re almost sure to see on the ballot this November, makes strict provisions as well. It prohibits possession of pot on school grounds, public use and smoking it while minors are present. It also keeps in place a ban on driving while stoned, just like the restrictions on alcohol.

Regulation would not trigger a weed-buying-free-for-all. According to the Initiative, about 100 million Americans use marijuana and 15 million of them within the past month. The rush began a long time ago.

Regulation would be a huge step towards management of the drug, but it only takes us so far.

Parental intervention and education needs to happen if children are to be knowledgeable about what is appropriate for adults and to help them interpret what legalized pot means to our society. This is how we avoid sending the wrong messages.

Sadly, society has already blown it when it comes to surrounding children with positive, enlightening, educational messages. Children receive erroneous and mixed messages constantly from multiple forms of media: television violence, over-sexualized images in print, suggestive or demeaning music lyrics, etc.

Wrong messages exist at home, too. Many children observe their parents over-indulge in cigarettes, food or excess of anything unhealthy.

Again, there are tons of concerns with the pot debate that I can’t seem to grasp, like the impact legalization might have on Mexican drug cartels, or the precise tax dollars that may or may not affect our economy as a result. I am leaving that type of research to a professional.

What I can understand is the need to talk openly with young people. It does take a village to raise children, but if we rely on society and the media to send correct information and positive messages to our kids, we are screwed.

The city ordinance will take affect after necessary research on monitoring costs and after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gives his signature. Why wait until then to make this a discussion among younger members of the family?

It will be an interesting year for cannabis. Angelenos and all California residents need more information in this fight. Do some research before you formulate your stance on whether or not pot should be legal, but do not wait to begin an honest discussion. Do it for the kids.

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  • Tain

    Public indecency is public indecency im pretty sure theres not a culture of exquisite understanding of where and when is it in your own home is it in a parkway these questions exist for reason? No they exist in common sense its done in the home and the assholes who make it indecent by being yourself an asshole for caring its all a bumble then you have issues. lol

    Parts per million in molecule form you breathe in worse but yeah that could be horrible your kid wanting more candy but your eating it all.

    Common sense plays role in elite mindset anyway why we have these civil laws to guide us away from annoying the murderers in us all. Somewhere in history in our genepools theres a murderous mofo please by our civil laws we keep them at bay. There used to be huge papparrazzi on family feuds. Now its crucial we get developed in our new knowledges a little more established we aint stupid this is working that aint etc etc .. and move along aint nuthin to see here move along.

  • Brandon

    Dude your full of it. Youcant get clambaked just by walking behind someone who’s smoking and you cant. Gethigh because someone downthe street smokes. It’s exactly like cigarettes if you have never tried it you really can’t say anything about it. It’s great it brings people closer it makes people happier and more aware. Driving is a breeze when high. I think we should legalize it so many people smoke it anyway nothing magor is going to change. My name is Brandon and I am a proud pot smoker. And I want YOU to smoke a joint! :)

  • Mark Brock

    DON’T LEGALIZE POT

    If pot is legalized, imagine walking down the city street with your 9 month old baby in your arms and holding your 4 year old’s hand. Two people are smoking pot 10 feet in front of you. Another group of three people are smoking pot further ahead of them. You can’t avoid breathing it nor can your children. You notice your 4 year old becomes more listless and lethargic. Your own thinking is blurred a bit. Of course, you are getting high by the act of breathing in a state where pot is legal. You are incensed that you and your family are FORCED to breathe pot smoke by all the careless smokers.

    Does this sound far fetched? Don’t kid yourself. How many thousands of times have you breathed second-hand cigarette smoke? How many times have you been in a room so filled with tobacco smoke that your clothes reeked? Be prepared because you will experience the same thing with pot smoke except now you and your family are forced to cloud your brain with smoke from thoughtless pot smokers.

    Vehicle accidents will happen from the driver breathing-second hand pot smoke. He will fail a pot drug test even though he hasn’t touched a joint in 20 years. What was he guilty of? Breathing on the same street as a pot smoker.

    Here is the difference between the impact of someone drinking alcohol and a person smoking pot.
    Intoxication with alcohol is LIMITED TO THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO DRINK. When a person drinks alcohol there is NO direct impact on the people’s bodies around them that choose not to drink. Their behavior can be obnoxious but the intoxication is limited to the drinkers.

    Intoxication with pot IS FORCED UPON EVERYONE THAT BREATHES NEAR THE POT SMOKER! Simply walking on the street behind them forces you to partake of pot. Worse yet, being in the same or up-stairs room from them can force you to cloud your brain every day through the act of breathing.. You can’t stop the smoke from blowing to others. If you live in an apartment be prepared to loose your clear thinking because the folks below or beside you smoke pot regularly and the smoke will leak into your apartment You, your neighbors, your children, will be living in a smoky haze.

    • So True

      Mr. Brock you are exactly right. Don’t let the users bully you. I am living that nightmare right now. My next door neighbors are students who rented an apartment for a couple of months here in Calif. just so they could get high. They didn’t tell the manager that but that is what has happened. I can’t open my apartment windows because I never know when their smoke is going to come in. I had to paint Kilz on the connecting wall because it was going through the drywall. It still gets in through cracks and it stinks. I never know when I open my door if I am going to get a face-full of marijuana smoke.

      It is affecting my health. Every day since these people have moved in I have a sore throat if I am at home. Burning red watering eyes, trouble breathing, rapid heartbeat at times, dizziness and more. I am doing whatever I can to try and keep the smell from ruining my belongings. I have to run fans 24 hours a day, plus an air filter.

      These people don’t care. Their windows are right at the courtyard where kids play and they don’t care. They have ruined that apartment, ruining my life and all they care about is getting high every day all the time.

      Yes I am breathing it in, people can smell it around me.

      People who have the brilliant suggestion that I should move, fail to consider that I should not be paying for someone else’s drug addiction. There is also no guarantee this won’t happen in another place. I have looked into non-smoking apartments, they are expensive and not that many around.

      It’s not exactly like cigarettes. It’s a drug. It alters people’s ability to function, it causes health problems and it stinks. And because it’s not regulated at all it’s all of our problem and it’s going to get worse.

      Brandon, I have tried pot previously and I know what it does. And I know exactly what it’s doing to me now. And I don’t want that in my life and I am being forced against my will. What you and all the other pro-pot people fail to every consider is that not everyone wants it. You all are so one-sided and that is what is wrong with all the arguments for legalizing it. You all fail to offer anything to the majority who does not want to smell or breath it.

      • Smoke Spreads Uncontrollably

        Dear Victims,
        I am so sorry to hear about your situations with the smoke coming inside your homes, or even around you outside without your control.
        Lets face it, smoking can be addicting, perhaps not physically, but habitually, socially, and just for pleasure.

        The opposition, alright you have the right to smoke something right? Well find a way to keep the smoke between you and you only since smoke spreads. Smoking spreads especially in apartments and it is not just for others to have no control over it. In fact, it is absurd to think others should get “air filters” or just open their windows because of smokers next door. The cause should be responsible for it, not the victims.

        And lets face it, the younger society has made this such a trend that it will be dangerous if it was legalized. People will keep on doing it till they forget about school and other responsibilities. Not because of physical causes but more likely since it’s so mentally addicting.

        Think about pornography. Why do you think it has such a bad reputation? Since it is such an addiction and people can’t control it as an individual unless there are surrounding peer pressure to influence you to do the right thing. Yes, if everyone were to have sex occasionally imagine the spread of disease that can occur.

        Perhaps my analogy was too extreme and marijuana won’t cause disease. But that isn’t what I’m trying to imply. I am saying marijuana does effect one’s thinking (and let’s face it, smoke is smoke, a high dosage or frequent use will end up harming you rather than “strengthening your immune system or your lungs”).

        Why not just legalize it and try? Remember? Obama says “Change!”
        What if it really does get out of control after marijuana legalizes? Could we really change it back? I doubt that, look at the smoking situation. We know for sure it’s bad, but it certainly isn’t banned like it should be.

  • student

    As a student, I would like to point out that it is currently significantly easier to get marijuana than alcohol, at least where I live (Arizona, strictest marijuana laws). You have to be 21 to get alcohol, or know someone who is 21. Drug dealers do not care how old you are.

  • http://antinomian-peacenik.blogspot.com Bill Harris

    One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, communists, and non-whites under prosecution of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.

    The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as lives are flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. When Eve ate the apple, she knew a good apple, and an evil prohibition. Canadian Marc Emery is being extradited to prison for selling seeds that American farmers use to reduce U. S. demand for Mexican pot.

    The CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnates Al Capone, endangers homeland security, and throws good money after bad. Fiscal policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. Society rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment.

    Nixon passed the CSA on the false assurance that the Schafer Commission would later justify criminalizing his enemies, but he underestimated Schafer’s integrity. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research, and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use. Former U.K. chief drugs advisor Prof. Nutt was sacked for revealing that non-smoked cannabis intake is scientifically healthy.

    The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. God’s children’s free exercise of religious liberty may include entheogen sacraments to mediate communion with their maker.

    Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.

    Common-law holds that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration. Liberty is prerequisite for tracking drug-use intentions and outcomes.

  • David Lizama

    Excellent article. If you want to educate the children about marijuana, first adults must educate themselves about cannabis and a great place to start is by reading Jack Herer’s The emperor Wears No clothes which details man’s historical link to marijuana and why we’re in the mess we’re in now. Before 1937, everything was different.

  • Christian

    Everyone should watch “The Union – the business behind getting high”! It can be viewed for free on you-tube, but it is well worth the rental or purchase price, no matter which side you are currently on.

    The writer makes great points here!