by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: October 19, 2009   Last Updated: February 18, 2012

It is interesting that one substance has a far more toxic and destructive effect on the body, the mood, and the reflexes, but is prosecuted with far less consequence than another substance which alters mood, judgment, and reflexes.

Under-aged alcohol consumption is treated almost as if it is a silly little rite of passage to be brushed off by parents who may have their own past and/or present alcohol abuse issues. Under-aged drinking is treated as a fact of college life. That is, under-aged alcohol consumption is treated like an acceptable fact of life until someone drinks so much that they suffer from severe alcohol poisoning or dies.

It is infuriating to hear that an under aged drunk driver is back out on the streets after endangering lives or causing thousands of dollars in damage, while the pot smoking counterpart remains in jail under more serious charges.

Marijuana use is demonised by far too many segments of our society, including alcoholics. Recreational marijuana is illegal and can definitely be abused by those young people who cannot be sober during any part of their day. But the illegality of marijuana is the exact factor that insures that it is controlled and distributed by the worst and most dangerous individuals and organizations in our country. If alcohol were under legal prohibition, the same dangerous elements would be distributing liquor.

As a result, there is a self-serving and socially destructive effect from making marijuana illegal, while alcohol is not only legal, it is far more easily obtained through safe and legitimate means. But not too many people die from marijuana poisoning.

Fortunately, both alcohol and marijuana are illegal substances when age is a factor, and the use of either should be prosecuted with equal fervor.

So the severity of punishment should be equal for both offenses. But it would make no sense to bring the under-aged marijuana prosecution severity level down to the level for under aged drinking. The under-aged drinking prosecution severity should be brought up to match the severity of action that is taken toward marijuana possession.

That way, under-aged college students would have an equal deterrent to ingesting toxic and harmful overdoses of alcohol, and thus progressing through the early stages of alcohol dependency, and the pot smokers would suffer the same consequences for exposing their classmates and community to the dangerous criminal elements who deal in marijuana.

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