By John Knetemann
The children. Are you thinking about them? You should be because all the prohibitionists seem to be thinking about the children. Or at least they think they are thinking about the children. The truth is drug prohibition has not been incredibly helpful to keeping drugs out of the hands of children. We have all heard the argument that legalizing cannabis would allow children to get it more readily. That seems to make sense. If marijuana is legal it is only intuitive that it would be easier for everyone to get marijuana. But looking at the facts and doing just a bit of thinking, it is quite clear that marijuana prohibition allows pot to be more available to children.
According to a study done in 2009 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, children found it much easier to find marijuana than alcohol. But that is completely opposite to what the prohibitionist says. In 2009, marijuana was not legal anywhere in the United States, and alcohol certainly was. Then how come children were able to get their hands on marijuana easier than alcohol? The answer is simple. Illegal drug dealers do not ID or check the age of their customers, while liquor stores do. That is pretty obvious, right?
A drug dealer does not care if the person is thirteen, seventeen, or eighty-two. All that the drug dealer cares about is that the customer has money. But who can blame them? They have no reason to care! I am sure a majority of liquor stores don’t really care either, but they ID anyways out of the interest of making more money. Whether an illegal drug dealer sells to a minor or someone that is thirty-five, their actions are still illegal. Meaning they might as well sell to those that are underage anyways. When a liquor store sells to a child, they are at risk of losing their business, which means they can no longer make money. The same goes for a legal recreational marijuana dispensary. If they sell to a minor, it means they could lose their store.
So who is really thinking about the children? Those for prohibition? Or those for legalization?
