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DEPT OF ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE PROGRAMS SUPPRESSES REPORT SHOWING POT USE AMONG CALIFORNIA STUDENTS LEVELLED OFF AFTER PASSAGE OF PROP 215

Cal. NORML

Cal. NORML Press Release

Saturday 27 May 2000


Cal. NORML Press Release - May 27, 2000

DEPT OF ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE PROGRAMS SUPPRESSES
REPORT SHOWING POT USE AMONG CALIFORNIA STUDENTS
LEVELED OFF AFTER PASSAGE OF PROP 215

A state report on the impact of California's medical marijuana
initiative, Prop.215, showing that use of marijuana by students declined
slightly following passage of the 1996 initiative after having increased
for several years previously, is being suppressed by the California Department
of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

The report, authored by Rodney Skager, professor emeritus of the
UCLA Graduate School of Education and founding director of the California

Attorney General's Student Survey on drug use, contradicts the main
arguments against passage of Proposition 215 in the 1996 state election.

The report found that while marijuana use among 16 year olds in
California leveled off after the election , it continued to rise among
older high school students in the Eastern U.S., according to a survey that
was conducted from 1997 to 1998.

Skager said this segment of the survey, which was underwritten
by a federal agency, has been "under review"by the DADP for the past
two years. He added: "I wonder if it will ever see the light of day?
Almost two years have passed since delivery of the first draft. People
in the sponsoring agency undoubtedly fear the consequences of release
of the data. The findings are politically incorrect because federal
propaganda about the medical marijuana initiative insisted that passage
would 'send the wrong message to young people.'"

Sources say that the report is being deliberately withheld because
officials feel the times are too sensitive for release of the findings
that Prop. 215 had no impact on youth marijuana use.

"It is time for the drug bureaucrats who opposed Prop. 215 to face
the fact that they underestimated the intelligence of California youth,"
commented California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer, one of the
original organizers of the medical marijuana initiative. "Kids are smart
enough to understand that medical marijuana use is not a green light
for them to get stoned."

The survey covering the period 1997-98 reported 41.6 percent of
eleventh graders in the state had used marijuana, compared to 42.8
percent in 1995-96. In the East, the survey showed an increase in
marijuana usage among twelfth graders, from 40 percent in 1995-96
to 43.5 percent in 1997-98. In addition to the Office of the Attorney
General of California, the California Student Survey is now sponsored
by the California Department of Education and the California Office
of Alcohol and Drug Programs. The latter agency provided the federal
funds for the special study of marijuana. The anonymous survey is
administered to students in grades seven, nine and eleven, and has
been given on a biennial basis since 1985.

Contact: Dale Gieringer, Cal NORML (415) 563-5858

 

 

 

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