Homeless in Arizona

According to their silly logic we should make marijuana illegal for adults because one child might get it. That's stupid

If their silly logic is true we should also make liquor illegal because one child might get it. Again that's stupid. Remember the Prohibition was a dismal just like the war on drugs.

They fail to address the fact that because marijuana is illegal, children can get marijuana easier then liquor.

If reality if the AZfrm initiative is passed it will make it harder for children to get marijuana, because it will be regulated like liquor. Of course Lisa Graham Keegan, Jaime Molera, Tom Horne and John Huppenthal are falsely arguing that it will make marijuana easier for kids to get.

Source

Our Turn: Legal marijuana will hurt Arizona education

Lisa Graham Keegan, Jaime Molera, Tom Horne and John Huppenthal, As We See It 6:48 p.m. MST February 14, 2016

As former Arizona superintendents of public instruction, we have spent our professional careers dedicated to seeking positive outcomes for our state’s youth and its education system. Given what we know about the challenges involved in education reform, we are compelled to go on record in vociferous opposition to current efforts to legalize marijuana in Arizona.

Most critically, we take great exception to recent campaign efforts to promote legalized marijuana as a net positive benefit to education reform. Legalizing a drug whose dangers have become more widely known and documented overturns decades of prevention work in our education and health-care systems.

Recent studies have shown that one in six adolescents who experiment with marijuana will become addicted; that today’s marijuana is far more potent and damaging than the marijuana of the past; and that marijuana use can lead to lower IQs, higher propensities to drop out, impaired cognitive function, negative changes in the brain and a rise in suspensions and expulsions.

By all accounts, it is bad public policy that should, and will, be resoundingly defeated.

Yet, proponents of marijuana legalization throw around loose dollar figures and argue that marijuana sales will help fund and reform Arizona’s education system. The most generous of estimations, some $58 million, appears to be a tempting number.

But when Arizona spends more than $9 billion dollars a year in elementary and secondary education, such a figure should be seen for what it is: a mere drop in the bucket. The Arizona Republic editorial board agreed, opining that legalizing marijuana “will do no more for education than pulling a few coins out of the sofa cushions.”

And that’s not taking into account the potential costs. How much money will be lost due to lower test scores, increased dropouts, suspensions, expulsions or car accidents? It’s a safe bet those costs would far exceed any theoretical income.

Although legalization advocates intend marijuana sales for adults only, there is simply no way to legalize a potent and dangerous substance and keep it both away from our youth and out of our schools. As Colorado’s experience has shown, increased availability leads to increased use across all age levels. In Colorado, youth marijuana use has increased 20 percent since it was legalized and is now 74 percent higher than the national average. Given the problems associated with teen marijuana use, this data point alone should serve as a giant red light for Arizona voters.

At the end of the day, the very idea that Arizona can effectively reform education by raising minimal amounts of revenue through the sale of a dangerous substance that negatively impacts our students is wholly irresponsible. There simply is no tax high enough to offset the risks and expenses of making marijuana more widely available in our society and to our state’s children.

We have dedicated large portions of our lives to improving educational outcomes for Arizona students, and marijuana use negatively affects every single one. It is a bad idea for Arizona and has no place in the conversation on positive education reform.

Lisa Graham Keegan, Jaime Molera, Tom Horne and John Huppenthal are all former Arizona superintendents of public instruction.