1. Can our experience with
tobacco and alcohol
teach us how to protect children
if marijuana is legalized?
Sue Rusche, President and CEO
National Families in Action
But What about the Children? Campaign

2. Begin with a small gift
• For all who have fought the first wave of
legalization
– Medical marijuana
• This ad from the 1880s

4. Status of marijuana research
• Any addictive drug is terrible for adolescents
whose developing brains make them vulnerable
to addiction, other brain disorders, and damage
• New studies add to our knowledge
– Persistent marijuana use before age 18 that
continues results in 8-point IQ drop by midlife
– Link to development of testicular cancer, especially
if use begins in adolescence
– Link to severe brain damage to fetus in first two
weeks of pregnancy

5. Status of marijuana legalization
• Medical marijuana legal in 17 states and D.C.
– Early states via ballot initiatives beginning in 1996
– Later states via legislative action
• Full legalization initiatives on 2012 ballot in
– Colorado (Amendment 64)
– Oregon (Cannabis Tax Act)
– Washington State (Measure 502)
• HR 2306—Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition
Act

6. More than 50% support legalization
• Gallup
– 50 percent nationwide up from 12 percent in 1969
• Angus Reid Public Opinion Poll
– 52 percent nationwide
• Colorado
– 51 percent for, 40 percent opposed
• Oregon
– 43 percent for, 46 percent opposed
• Washington
– 50 percent for, 38 percent opposed

7. All 3 will regulate pot like alcohol:
Younger Teens
70
Alcohol
Marijuana
60
50
40
30
20%
20 18%
14%
10% 9%
10 8%
0
Colorado Ages 12-17 Oregon Ages 12-17 Washington Ages 12 to 17
Source: National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2008-2009 State Data

8. All 3 will regulate pot like alcohol
Older Teens and Young Adults
70 70%
67%
Alcohol
61%
Marijuana
60
50
40
30
24% 24%
20 17%
10
0
Colorado Ages 18 to 25 Oregon Ages 18 to 25 Washington Ages 18 to 25
Source: National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2008-2009 State Data

9. Who will write the regulations?
• Department of Revenue (CO)
• Liquor Control Board (WA)
• Cannabis Commission (OR)
– Governor appoints all 7 members in Year 1
– 5 of 7 members elected annually thereafter by
licensed marijuana growers and processors

10. All 3 prohibit
• State and local law enforcement agencies
from enforcing federal law
– The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
doesn’t have enough personnel to do it alone
• The President would have to federalize the
National Guard to enforce federal law
– With 50 percent of Americans supporting
legalization, that’s not likely to happen

11. Policy researchers predict
• If one state legalizes marijuana, price is likely
to drop 80 percent to 90 percent
– People from other 49 states will go there to buy
pot (including dealers)
• The legalization state will likely experience a
flood of marijuana taxes, creating a domino
effect
– Other states will feel pressure to legalize pot to
gain their fair share of taxes
Source: An Analysis of How Current Marijuana Legalization Initiatives Stack Against the 12 Provisions

12. A commercial marijuana industry
• Will market its products to children like the
tobacco and alcohol companies do
Source: What 6-year-old wouldn’t want to eat one of these chocolate chip cookies?

13. Here’s what tobacco execs said:
Liggett Group
• "If you are really and truly not going to sell
[cigarettes] to children, you are going to be
out of business in 30 years."

14. R. J. Reynolds
• "Realistically, if our company is to survive
and prosper, over the long term we must
get our share of the youth market."

15. Lorillard
• "The base of our business is the high school
student."

16. Philip Morris
• “Today's teenager is tomorrow's potential
regular customer, and the overwhelming
majority of smokers first begin to smoke while
still in their teens. ... [S]moking patterns of
teenagers are particularly important to Philip
Morris. ... Because of our high share of the
market among the youngest smokers, Philip
Morris will suffer more than the other
companies from the decline in the number of
teenage smokers. “

17. Former model for Winstons
• “Of course, children aren't the only targets
of the tobacco industry. Once, when I asked
an R.J. Reynolds executive why he and his
colleagues didn't smoke, he responded
point-blank that “We don't smoke the sh--
, we just sell it... We reserve that right for the
young, the poor, the black, and the stupid.”

18. A minimum purchase age is not enough
• It does nothing to prevent an addictive drug
industry from marketingto underage
children.
– It took specific litigation/laws, to force tobacco
producers to stop marketing to kids
• It does nothing to prevent an addictive drug
industry from selling to underage children
– It took a specific law to force tobacco retailers
to stop selling to kids

19. Constraints brought against Big Tobacco
• 1964 and subsequent Surgeon General’s Reports
– Smoking kills 443,000 people a year
– Second-hand smoke causes 50,000 of these deaths
– Smoking causes cancers, heart disease, lung
disease, other illnesses in 8.6 million Americans a year
• Results
– Impetus for evolution of local and state smoke-free laws

20. Constraints, continued
• 1992 Synar Amendment
– Requires states to conduct
annual, random, unannounced inspections of over-
the-counter tobacco outlets and vending machines
– States not in compliance lose 40 percent of their
substance abuse block grant funds
• Results
– Violation rate dropped from 40 percent in 1997 to
8.5 percent in 2011
– Adolescent over-the-counter cigarette purchases
dropped from 39 percent in 1995 to 14 percent in
2009

22. Constraints, continued
• 1998 Master Settlement Agreement
– States sued tobacco industry which agreed to
reimburse them in perpetuity ($246 billion over the
first 25 years) for their costs of treating tobacco-
related diseases in Medicaid patients
– Agreed to reduce marketing to youth
– Established independent prevention fund and the
Legacy Foundation to conduct a national
prevention/cessation campaign
• Results
– Adolescent smoking at lowest levels in history

23. Constraints, continued
• 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and
Tobacco Control Act
– Makes Food and Drug Administration
responsible for regulating tobacco
– Act became effective one year later
– FDA putting regulations in place now

24. Definition of “contingency”
• An event that is of possible but uncertain
occurrence
• What is contingency planning?
– Trying to plan for a contingency
• Contingency planning helps people see
things that are not on their radar

25. In this case
• Contingency (possible but uncertain)
– Full marijuana legalization
• Question 1
– How can we protect children if it happens?
• Question 2
– When should we do it?

26. The time to contingency plan is now
before commerce takes over
• In early 2010, National Families in Action
assembled some of the nation’s most
effective leaders who work to prevent
underage drinking and smoking. We asked:
– “If you could have written the law that repealed
Prohibition in the 1930s, or the Tobacco Control
Law 150 years ago (instead of 2009), knowing
what you know now, what kinds of provisions
would you have placed in those laws to prevent
these industries from targeting kids?”

27. Our provisions
grew out of their answers
1. No advertising
2. A penalty fee
3. Automatic repeal
4. No product placements
5. An industry-financed fund
6. A state agency to regulate and tax
7. Licensed growers, distributors, retail sales
8. No drugged driving

28. Provisions, continued
9. No drugged employees or students
10. Smoke-free laws apply
11. Marijuana controlled by FDA
12. A Surgeon General’s Report on marijuana
www.butwhataboutthechildren.org

29. Conclusion
• Federal, state, and local leaders must act
now to develop a contingency plan to
protect children if marijuana is legalized.
– If they wait until legalization (maybe)
happens, concern for children's health and well-
being will be overwhelmed by concern for
profits
– A third industry will market addiction and death
to generations of children before anyone can
bring it under control.