Don’t rush into legalizing marijuana

One of the forces driving tourism is people’s desire to experience something they cannot find at home.

Those living in the mountains like traveling to the seashore. Some look for a different culture — Americans traveling to China, Japanese to Europe, etc.

Colorado has recently begun offering another "different" experience. Since its quasi-legalization of marijuana on Jan. 1, it has been attracting visitors wishing to openly purchase and use cannabis.

Before we in Hawaii ask the Legislature to take that path, as some advocate, let’s look at some facts about marijuana and take time to learn from Colorado.

Actually, the sale, possession and use of marijuana remain illegal under federal law, even in Colorado. Marijuana raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration continue across the nation, although they have recently been reduced in states with a clear licensing process for "medical marijuana."

Twenty states, including Hawaii, plus the District of Columbia, have legalized marijuana for its many legitimate medical uses. Dr. Lester Grinspoon, associate professor of psychiatry emeritus at Harvard Medical School, who has studied marijuana since 1967, has supported the concept in publications, speeches and two websites (http://rxmarijuana.com and http://marijuana-uses.com). In a YouTube video (http://tinyurl.com/ ml7xbuh), he describes how cannabis dramatically eased chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting when his son, 10, was treated for acute lymphocytic leukemia.

However, in The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal recently highlighted marijuana’s many dangers, especially for teens: "Marijuana impairs learning, judgment and memory. … (Northwestern University) researchers … have found lasting changes in ‘working memory,’ brain structures critical to memory and reasoning. … (Yet,) barely 40 percent of adolescents now believe regular (marijuana) use is harmful — down from 80 percent two decades ago. … Now marijuana is becoming more widely regarded as a harmless amusement. That’s not funny, it’s tragic."

In Colorado, implementing rules and regulations for the sale of "recreational" marijuana is proving challenging. Local media, including The Denver Post’s specialty publication, The Cannabist (www.thecan-nabist.co), report daily on the issues involved.

Should people on government assistance be allowed to buy marijuana? Can a homeowners’ association ban its possession or use? Does "private consumption" allow smoking pot on your unfenced front lawn? Can you take it through the airport? Are there tests to determine if a driver is "under the influence"?

Three new tour companies are taking visitors to marijuana shops and cannabis patches to compare prices and varieties. In one stretch limo, passengers can try out their purchases. Colorado collects a 25 percent tax on cannabis sales and predicts annual revenue of over $75 million.

In Hawaii, House Speaker Joe Souki, who opposes decriminalizing recreational marijuana, called for the adoption of a measure — yet to be spelled out in proposed legislation — that would allow the legal purchase of medical marijuana. (Paradoxically, when Hawaii legalized medical marijuana in 2000, it created no mechanism for its legal purchase. Those who have a prescription must therefore either purchase it illegally or grow it themselves.)

David Nixon, associate professor at the University of Hawaii College of Social Sciences Public Policy Center, estimates that decriminalizing recreational marijuana could save taxpayers $9 million in law enforcement and generate $11 million in tax revenue annually.

Based on Colorado’s experience, decriminalizing marijuana might also benefit the visitor industry. However, while decriminalization has appeared to boost tourism in Colorado initially, we don’t yet know how many potential visitors it might actually turn away.

Given marijuana’s well-documented dangers, before we decriminalize its recreational use, as was proposed in the Legislature last year, we should watch Colorado for several years.

Let’s learn from their experiences and only then decide what to do.