Legalized Marijuana on Trial
Mayor John Suthers of Colorado Springs 2015-2023. Prior to that the Attorney General for Colorado for 11 years, and before that a prosecutor for the U.S. attorney’s office
Legalized Marijuana in Colorado on Trial: The Verdict is guilty on some counts and the jury is hung on others.
Immediately after the voters of Colorado sanctioned recreational use of marijuana in the November 2012 election I recommended, as Colorado’s Attorney General, that our citizens begin to consider what criteria we should look at to determine the success or failure of this new public policy, which most Coloradans seemed to characterize as an experiment. After all, if you’re engaged in an experiment you need to have some criteria to judge whether it’s a good result or a bad one. I suggested we closely monitor the promises of the proponents of recreational marijuana to ascertain if they were being fulfilled. The three major arguments of the proponents, highlighted in all their campaign advertising, were that 1) the sale of marijuana would produce enormous amounts of revenue for the state that could be used for critical needs such as our educational system 2) regulated commercial sale of marijuana would put organized crime out of the marijuana business. We would eliminate the black market for the drug. And 3) a regulated marketplace would lead to less underage access to the drug. Fewer underage Coloradans would use marijuana. Another criteria I suggested we should look at is whether Colorado grown marijuana was being distributed to other states and countries that had not legalized its use. In other words, was Colorado the creator of a black market for the rest of the country? Proponents assured us we’d do a good job regulating the industry and that wouldn’t happen.
Well, we’re six years into the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado, and eight years since medical marijuana became widely accessible in the state, so we don’t have the kind of database you’d want to conclusively address all the issues associated with legalization. But we do have a great deal of information that is valuable and we can conclusively answer some questions about whether marijuana legalization has lived up to the promises of its proponents. So I’m going to share that with you today. The information I’ll provide comes from a number of national and state studies and surveys. I’ll try to identify the source of each statistic I give you. But there’s a compilation of a lot of this information available on the website of the Colorado Department of Public Safety.
Let’s begin with youth use of marijuana. According the SAMHSA’S National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 12 years ago, in 2006, Colorado ranked #14 in past month use of marijuana by 12-17 year olds. 7.6% of our kids had used pot in the last month. That put us about 12% above the national average. After the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries, Colorado moved up to #3 by 2013 and with marijuana legalization is now firmly entrenched at #1 as having the highest per capita marijuana use rate by youth in the country. In 2014 12.6% of Colorado youth between 12 and 17 used marijuana in the past month. That was 74% above the national average rate of 7.2%. Now the marijuana industry is making a big deal out of the fact that last month adolescent pot use in Colorado has now stabilized at the same level as when recreational marijuana was legalized in 2012. That actually is not very surprising. What we have learned is that any legal sanctioning of widespread access to marijuana, whether medical or recreational, leads to a significant decline in youth perception of risk and a corresponding rise in youth use. When Colorado embraced widespread medical marijuana access, youth use rates rose significantly. And with legalization of recreational marijuana, we remain among the highest in the country in youth use of the drug. And what we do know for sure is that youth use of marijuana has not declined with regulation of the drug which was the claim of the proponents.
There is also statistical evidence that youth marijuana use in Colorado is impacting the classroom. A 2017 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey indicates 11% of Colorado ninth graders smoked marijuana in the last month, 18% of tenth graders, 24% of eleventh graders and 26% of twelfth graders. According to the Colorado Department of Education drug related expulsions and suspensions in Colorado public schools have increased from 3,700 in 2008 -2009 to 4,600 in 2017-2018, despite the fact that the Colorado legislature has expressly discouraged zero tolerance policies in public schools as a way of reducing expulsions and suspensions. About 2/3 of drug related expulsions and suspensions involved marijuana. In 2017 24% of all school referrals to law enforcement involved marijuana. The Colorado Division of Juveniles Probation Services indicates that 34.4% of all juvenile probationers subjected to urinalysis tested positive for marijuana compared to 22% 10 years ago. Treatment providers in Colorado report that teenage admission for marijuana use rose 66% from 2011 to 2017. It’s estimated that edible marijuana use now accounts for almost 50% of adolescent use of the drug. These edibles contain very high levels of THC and are responsible for a 148% increase in reported marijuana poisoning between 2012 and 2016. Nationally the average THC content of smoked marijuana was 3.9% in 1995 and 12% in 2014. The current average in Colorado is around 17.1%. The average THC content of hash oil infused edibles has increased from 13.2% in 1995 to 55.9% in 2017. Colorado does not regulate the THC level of recreational marijuana.
So where do underage kids get the marijuana? Well this is interesting, and frankly a bit depressing. The SAMHSA annual survey indicates 45% of youth say they get it from an older friend or sibling who bought it legally. 25% say they got it from the black market and almost 25% say they got it from their parents. A Colorado Survey by the Association of School Resource Offices had similar results. 39% of Colorado kids got the pot from a friend or sibling that obtained it legally. 23% got it from parents and 26% got it from the black market. Bottom line folks, contrary to the assertions of legalization proponents, no amount of regulation of medical or recreational marijuana will keep it out of the hands of adolescents. Their use of marijuana is driven by perception of risk more so than access to the drug. Access has never been the issue.
I personally find it interesting that we’re still spending millions of dollars each year trying to dissuade teenagers from smoking cigarettes when there are now as many teenagers using marijuana as cigarettes. That’s not good for their health either.
So how much marijuana revenue is making it to Colorado Schools and benefitting our kids? The answer is not much. In the calendar year 2017 the total revenue from marijuana taxes and fees in Colorado as $243 million. Sounds like a lot of money. But it’s less than .9% of the Colorado budget and after deducting the costs of marijuana regulations relatively few dollars go to other needs, including education. That will become increasingly the case as cities and counties request more money for law enforcement and homeless issues related to marijuana. City police and county sheriffs are spending much more time and resources trying to deal with black market marijuana than they did before legalization and they want marijuana tax revenues to pay for it. I will speak more about that in a moment. Cities are asking the state for more money for low barrier shelters because of the perceived correlation between marijuana legalization and increased numbers of homeless in Colorado. Andrew Freedman, the Director of Marijuana Coordination for Colorado was very blunt. “You don’t legalize marijuana for revenue. It’s a myth. It won’t pave our streets or pay our teachers. It’s a Red Herring to argue that marijuana taxes will solve our revenue problems.” The Superintendent of the Cherry Creek School District was even more blunt. “The only thing my school district has gotten from marijuana legalization is a lot more marijuana.” Very few urban school districts have thus far gotten any marijuana money.
A recent study released by Colorado’s Centennial Institute found that for every dollar gained in tax revenue from marijuana legalization Coloradans will spend $4.50 to mitigate the impacts of marijuana legalization. Health care related costs and those related to dropping out of high school are the largest contributors to those costs. The study was also an eye opener for environmentalists. The marijuana industry annually uses enough energy to power nearly 40,000 homes and is responsible for about 400,000 pounds of CO2 emissions each year. Its water consumption is also enormous.
The problem is that many of the entities that garner the revenue from pot aren’t typically the ones that bear the costs of pot use. Cities don’t pay the costs of high school drop outs. State and federal tax payers do. Cities don’t pay the costs of social security disability payments to the 30% of recipients who don’t work because they are too drug dependent to do so. And cities don’t typically bear the health care costs associated with drug abuse.
Now, let’s consider the situation with adult use of marijuana in Colorado. According to the SAMHSA national survey 32% of 18-25 year old Coloradans had past month use of marijuana in 2017. That’s 61% higher than the national average of 19%, making Colorado #2 in college age marijuana use. But it’s the 26 and older age groups that we really kick their butts! While we ranked 8th in adult use ten years ago we’re now #1 by a long shot. In 2016, 14.7% of people over 25 used marijuana in the last month compared to 6.5% nationally, making our rate of adult use 124% higher than the national average and far and away the highest in the country. The SAMHSA survey also indicates that about half of adult users, or about 7.6% of adult Coloradans, ingest marijuana daily or more often. According to the Colorado Department of Human Services, office of Behavioral Health, people in treatment for marijuana abuse who report using more than 21 days per month has increased from 22% in 2007 to 36% in 2015.
And that reflects a growing national problem. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates the number of Americans who are heavy users of marijuana is soaring. In 2006, about 3 million Americans reported daily use of marijuana. By 2017, that number had increased to 8 million. Put another way, while 1 in 15 alcohol drinkers drink every day, 1 in 5 marijuana users use it every day. This is particularly concerning when several medical studies are showing a link between heavy cannabis use and psychotic episodes.
Marijuana proponents love to promote it as a safe alternative to other drugs, including alcohol. But the Colorado Hospital Association reports marijuana related emergency room visits have skyrocketed from 8,200 in 2011 to 18,260 in 2014 and hospitalizations related to marijuana have risen from 6,300 in 2011 to 11,400 in 2014. Marijuana related hospitalizations have increased 72% since legalization of recreational marijuana. This is largely attributed to the dramatic increase in THC content of marijuana in Colorado.
And I probably don’t need to tell this audience that there is no statistical evidence to support the notion that marijuana is being used as an alternative to other drugs. Colorado continues to rank at the top or near the top for Heroin, Cocaine and Methamphetamine use. We’re near the top for prescription drug abuse. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that the spread of legalization of marijuana is taking place at the same time that fatal drug overdoses are skyrocketing. Since 2011 deaths from prescription opioids have far outstripped homicides in Colorado. And by the way, we haven’t seen a decrease in alcoholism and its devastating effects. Alcohol consumption is up slightly since 2012, mirroring studies showing marijuana use often accompanies alcohol use and does not replace it.
What’s been the impact of medical and recreational marijuana on impaired driving in Colorado? The good news is that according to the Colorado Department of Transportation
traffic fatalities in Colorado have been relatively flat over the last 10 years until 2016. There were 535 fatalities in 2006 and 547 in 2015. There were 608 fatal accidents in 216. The bad news is that the percentage of motor vehicle operators in fatal accidents that test positive for marijuana has risen from 6.9% in 2006 to 25% in 2016. So, in 2016 149 of our 608 traffic deaths were marijuana related. Over the last four years total traffic deaths have risen 15% but marijuana related deaths have increased 66%.
And now let’s turn to the contention of legalization proponents that the black market would go away and we’d drive organized crime out of the business? Perhaps the biggest lie of all, I must confess that even I am surprised by what’s developed in this regard. Colorado has become a massive black market exporter of marijuana to other states and other countries.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2006 there were 41 law enforcement interdictions of Colorado produced marijuana. In 2017 there were 608 involving more than 5 tons of marijuana. In 2017 there were 346 highway interdictions of Colorado grown marijuana, destined for 36 different states. Marijuana plant seizures in Colorado grew from 7,290 in 2013 to 47,108 in 2016. Keep in mind the DEA estimates they intersect less than 10% of drugs in transit. Seizures of Colorado produced marijuana in the U.S. mail has gone from 0 in 2009 to 854 in 2016. Last year 1726 pounds of marijuana were seized by postal authorities going to 41 different states. Now I expected everything I just told you would occur. But here’s what I didn’t foresee. In the last few years Mexican, Cuban, Laotian, Columbian, Venezuelan, Vietnamese, and Chinese cartels have come to Colorado, purchased or leased residential or commercial properties and illegally grown massive amounts of marijuana for export throughout the United States and other countries. How do we know? Because they’ve been arrested doing so. And for every group arrested, there are others going undetected.
How about the illegal growing of marijuana on public lands. Legalization of marijuana has brought a 73% increase in natural forest seizures from 46,000 plants in 2012 to 81,000 plants in 2017.
So let’s review the arguments of marijuana legalization proponents once again and analyze their truthfulness six years after the fact:
Argument #1) Marijuana will produce massive amounts of revenue for the state that will be available for critical needs, including education.
Fact: A quarter of a billion dollars is a lot of money, but it’s not even paying for all the law enforcement and social costs of marijuana, let alone education, roads and the necessities. In fact marijuana costs us more than the revenue we receive.
Argument # 2) Regulation of marijuana will put an end to the black market and put the drug cartels out of business.
Fact: The assertion is comical in hindsight. The DEA is confident that more marijuana is grown illegally in Colorado then is grown legally.
Argument #3) A regulated marijuana market will lead to less underage use of the drug.
Fact: Best case scenario, youth use rates are the same as at the time of legalization of recreational marijuana and way above those at the time of medical legalization. But its clear youth access has not declined as promised.
So as to the main arguments of legalization proponents, they’ve failed to deliver on all of them. Yet that hasn’t stopped them from campaigning across the country to expand legalization to other states, citing the success of marijuana legalization in Colorado. The propaganda machine of big marijuana is beginning to resemble the propaganda machine of big tobacco. And in many ways they have the same task – to minimize to the public the serious health risks associated with their product. We can only hope that as legalization spreads so will all the problems associated with it, and Colorado will not bear a disproportionate burden as it has thus far.
The issue on which the jury is still out, in my opinion, is perhaps the biggest question of all. What will be the long term effects of marijuana use on the overall drug abuse problem in Colorado. If you believe, as I do, that the flood of very high potency marijuana unleashed by legalization will serve as a gateway to opioids and other dangerous drugs for today’s 12-15 year olds marijuana users, the future of drug abuse in our state is not a pretty picture. But only time will tell.
And, of course, the state of the law is still a big question mark. As you know, virtually all the marijuana related activity currently sanctioned by Colorado and other states remains a violation of federal law. And while there is talk by some in Congress about changing the federal law, it’s not clear they have the support to do so. And yet there’s not much to suggest a crackdown by the feds either. Even Jeff Sessions, who was an outspoken critic of marijuana legalization, demonstrated a fairly hands off approach towards the states. The state of uncertainty appears likely to continue for some time. Which means I will probably be back to talk to you again about this interesting subject in years to come.
