WATCH: News Reports Marijuana Use Is Up in Colorado…Smoke if You Got ‘em!
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Over at The Huffington Post, Mason Tvert, cofounder and executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and co-author of Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, looks at the news that pot smoking is up significantly in Colorado.
Is this a bad thing? In a word, no.
At the same time marijuana use has gone up, binge drinking has gone down. Responsible adults are getting the message that marijuana is the safer alternative.
Last week, following the federal government’s release of a state-by-state survey of drug use and perceptions of harms of various drugs, the news media in Colorado reported that marijuana use was up significantly in the state.
Let’s just pause and think about that for a moment. The news media reported that marijuana use was up up significantly in the state.
Now, most of us have been bombarded by the message that marijuana is “bad” or “harmful” our entire lives, and we know what to expect when the traditional media reports on an increase in marijuana use. So you probably assume at this point that the tone of the coverage was one of alarm and dismay. If you think that, you haven’t been in Colorado over the past four years.
What has happened in the Centennial State over the past four years, you might ask? Well, the populace, including the media itself, has been constantly bombarded with one simple message: Marijuana is safer than alcohol — both to the user and to society — and it therefore makes no sense to punish adults who make the rational choice to use the less harmful substance.
The organization I head, SAFER, which stands for Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, has pushed this message through referendums on college campuses, two citywide ballot initiatives in Denver, a statewide ballot initiative campaign, and countless public demonstrations and press conferences. (You can get a sampling of the kind of media coverage we have generated by checking out our YouTube channel.)
SAFER’s efforts appear to be having an impact. Consider first the survey mentioned above. Yes, it showed that marijuana use increased in the state. More importantly, Colorado was one of only three states in which the perceived risk of smoking marijuana once a month decreased by a statistically significant amount between 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.
In other words, it appears the people of Colorado are getting the message. They are starting to understand that the government has lied to them for decades and the truth is that marijuana is simply not all that harmful, especially in comparison to alcohol. They are beginning to see marijuana for what it really is — a less harmful recreational alternative to alcohol — and it appears some of them are logically shifting toward using the safer substance.
