Marijuana school suspensions more than doubled after legalization (Alaska)

Anchorage Daily News 11 January 2018
Family First Comment: 141% increase!
“Because it’s legal in the community, I think, the stigma around marijuana use is decreasing,” he said. “The data would seem to say there is increasing use.” By opening marijuana shops all over town, society went from saying marijuana was transgressive to saying it is encouraged. Kids heard that.”
www.saynopetodope.nz

Alaska’s legalization of marijuana came with a huge spike in suspensions of Anchorage students for using or carrying pot at school.

We voted in 2014 to treat marijuana like alcohol. Alcohol destroys Alaska lives and families. Now legal marijuana is starting to do its damage.

Meanwhile, the alcohol industry is fighting hard and dirty to keep a local tax off the ballot that would address some of its damage. The Anchorage Assembly will vote on that Jan. 23. The municipality already levies a local marijuana tax.

In the fall school semester of 2015, soon after legalization, the Anchorage School District suspended 69 students for marijuana use or possession. The same semester the next year, the number jumped to 97. In the semester that just ended, 166 students were suspended for pot.

There’s no research to say why this 141 percent increase happened, but it isn’t because of stronger enforcement or changes in discipline policy, said Joe Zawodny, director of secondary education for the ASD.

“Because it’s legal in the community, I think, the stigma around marijuana use is decreasing,” he said. “The data would seem to say there is increasing use.”
READ MORE: https://www.adn.com/opinions/2018/01/11/marijuana-school-suspensions-more-than-doubled-after-legalization/

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