Homeless in Arizona

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Letter: Prohibition makes pot worse

Tony Ryan 7:24 a.m. MST April 11, 2016

I spent 36 years with the Denver Police Department. I know what drugs do to people and communities.

But what became abundantly clear after my career is that prohibition makes all facets of drug use worse.

The Colorado Healthy Kids Survey shows no statistically significant increase in marijuana use among youth between 2005 and 2013.

My verdict?

It’s too early to tell. The data clearly conflict, and the latest survey data has yet to be examined.

It may be true that only 3 percent of marijuana users are ever arrested, but in Arizona in 2014, that still amounted to 16,177 arrests for possession alone, compared to the 214 people arrested for marijuana sale or manufacturing charges.

More drivers in accidents may be testing positive for marijuana, but there’s not a shred of proof that marijuana is causing those accidents.

A marijuana user may still test positive for THC weeks after ingestion, long after intoxication subsides.

— Tony Ryan, Sahuarita