A favorite refrain of medical marijuana opponents is that legalizing it will lead to teens having easier access to cannabis. This theory is easily destroyed by common sense, as we have discussed multiple times: drug dealers do not check I.D., yet liquor stores do. Prohibition vs. regulation.

Obviously products being sold in stores where employees have every reason to enforce I.D. laws – like keeping a liquor license for liquor stores and bars – will be harder for teens to get than products sold by some guy in an alley or out of his basement.

There have been studies before showing that states with medical marijuana actually have teen marijuana use that is lower than states that do not have legal protections for patients, and now there is another one out of Colorado, arguably the state with the most extensive and regulated medical marijuana program in the country.

In CO, teen marijuana use is down while it continues to rise across the rest of the country. But if medical marijuana leads to easier access for teens, wouldn’t the opposite be true?

- Joe Klare

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