New law has drug counselors retooling strategy

If society says smoking marijuana is OK - or at least not the crime it used to be - how do parents, school health counselors, and police officers get youths to keep saying no?

This month's passage of a state ballot question that decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce of marijuana has created a troubling new landscape, according to area drug-abuse educators.

"You have to wonder whether the people who voted yes really understood the ramifications," said Steve Wallace, chairman of Students Against Destructive Decisions, or SADD, which has its national headquarters in Marlborough. "As a state we voted to protect the dogs, but we threw the kids under the bus," he said, referring to another successful ballot question that phases out greyhound racing in Massachusetts.

But advocates of the decriminalization question said the new law will free police to focus on more serious crimes, and prevent 7,500 unnecessary arrests that cost taxpayers $30 million annually.

In terms of the effect on teenagers, the law will provoke more "honest and responsible" drug education for the state's children, said Whitney Taylor, campaign manager of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy. The group authored the ballot question, which won with a 65 percent majority in the Nov. 4 election.

"While this may be a difficult transition, in the end it's a healthier and smarter way to deal with young people. We know that 100 million Americans have admitted using marijuana, yet we have an educational system that says things like 'it will wreck your life,' when they can look around at the people in their lives, like their brothers, sisters, parents and even grandparents, and see that just isn't true," she said.

The new Massachusetts law, scheduled to go into effect in January, will make getting caught with less than an ounce punishable by a civil fine of $100. It also means the offense will no longer be reported to the state's criminal history board. The law will require those younger than 18 to complete a drug awareness program and a term of community service; for those who don't comply, the fine would increase to as much as $1,000. Eleven other states have similar laws in place.

"The 65 percent of voters are sending the wrong message to young people that smoking weed is no big deal," said Wallace, author of a newly published book, "Reality Gap: Alcohol, Drugs and Sex - What Parents Don't Know and Teens Aren't Telling."

School health educators and police officers say they are dreading the implementation of the new law.

"It's going to make my job a lot harder because it perpetuates the myths about marijuana being harmless, which it isn't," said Robert Moro, project director of Ashland's Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Initiative, who said his e-mail inbox has been "filled with chatter about what to tell kids" since the ballot proposal passed.

"We're already hearing kids talking about enrolling in a state school," rather than an out-of-state college, to take advantage of the law, Moro said, "which is disturbing because it means they don't understand that marijuana is still very dangerous for young people, and that they aren't held immune from consequences if they get caught."

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said even more responsibility will fall on parents and other adults in leadership positions to reinforce that marijuana smoking is "not healthy, safe or legal."

Leone said he believes more young people in Massachusetts are likely to experiment with marijuana now, because they perceive less risk in doing so.

"The focus of prevention education will have to be on the serious and dangerous effects it has on kids," he said.

Diane Barry, with the Newton-based Education Development Center, works with the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation and five local communities which are crafting a new education campaign that may also focus more on parents than similar efforts have in the past.

"Parents are the best line of defense in terms of substance abuse," she said. The ballot proposal's passage "has made us think twice about how to approach the message that kids need to stay substance-free because it limits the choices they will have for their futures."

Taylor said the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy is not encouraging young people - or anyone else - to smoke marijuana. The point was to eliminate harsh criminal penalties for minor offenses, which could "punish a young person for the rest of their life," she said. "Young people should not be using substances when their brain is still developing.

"We should be open and honest with them and say, 'It is illegal, it's a drug, it can cause problems and this is what those problems are,' " Taylor said. "To scare them, or tell them 'just say no, because we said so, and you'll go to jail,' just doesn't work."

National research by SADD indicates that more than 60 percent of teens say the number-one reason they choose not to use drugs, including marijuana, is because they are illegal, said Wallace, the SADD official.

Stephen Winkler, a youth spokesman for SADD who is a freshman at Emmanuel College in Boston, said most college students he knows were in favor of the law change for marijuana possession.

"They say it's no big deal, and it shouldn't give you a record," Winkler said. "But I don't agree with that at all. I don't think marijuana can help us in any way, and society should not promote using it."

Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, this story in Globe West on drug-abuse prevention efforts misnamed Education Development Center Inc., based in Newton. In addition, EDC receives funding from a variety of sources, including the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation.