Here's classic b.s. from the prohibitionist lobby on pot:
National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora Volkow fears the problem is not being taken seriously because many adults remember the marijuana of their youth as harmless.
"It's really not the same type of marijuana," Volkow said in a telephone interview. "This could explain why there has been an increase in the number of medical emergencies involving marijuana."
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Adminstration, marijuana was involved in 242,200 visits to hospital emergency rooms in 2005. This means that the patient mentioned using marijuana and does not mean the drug directly caused the accident or condition being treated, SAMHSA says. The number is up from 215,000 visits in 2004.
Notice the carefully parsed statement: "This could explain." And yet, there's no evidence at all that it does actually explain anything, except perhaps that pot-smoking is enjoying a resurgence. (By the way: I wonder what the annual number of medical emergencies involving alcohol is. Not "could be", but is.) There's no question that pot is stronger now than in the 1960s; there's equally no question in my mind that any minor should be prevented from smoking it. But legalization and regulation could help restrict its use among minors, the way we do with nicotine today. And it could also help regulate its potency. But such measures would be a function of a rational drug policy, as opposed to the completely insane one we live under today.