Marijuana Policy Project

Working daily in the Palm Beach County Regional Detention Center puts me in contact with many juveniles. As a substance-abuse interventionist, I talk with many of these kids. I usually ask two questions during preliminary screening: 1 ) Do you use drugs? The answer in most cases is no; 2 ) Do you smoke weed? More than 80 percent of the kids answer yes.

Most of the kids I see don't smoke joints anymore. The new way of ingesting marijuana is by smoking a "blunt." Many times, the amount of marijuana in a single blunt can be the equivalent of three to five joints. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active chemical in marijuana, is one of the oldest hallucinogenic drugs and addicts more than 150,000 individuals annually. As a former cop, I can tell you that marijuana does not always lead to the use of other drugs. It is my experience, however, that most users of marijuana experimented or continued to use marijuana along with their new drug of choice.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, "Higher potency marijuana is now being produced from cannabis cultivated in large outdoor grow sites in California by Mexican and Asian criminal groups, with the average potency of tested samples showing an increase of 52.4 percent, within the past five years." Since 2001, more high-potency marijuana is coming from Mexico and Canada.

Use of marijuana during this time of growth can have a negative impact on teens' learning, critical thinking and decision-making, relationship skills and overall maturity. Use of marijuana can make a teen more likely to be involved in automobile accidents and casual, unprotected sex. I support decriminalization of marijuana, not legalization. I believe those arrested for possession of marijuana should be referred for substance abuse education or, if need be, treatment.