Troubled by a new study that shows most high school seniors don't think occasional marijuana use is harmful, Sen. Chuck Grassley on Tuesday blasted the Obama administration's support of pot legalization.
The White House is sending America's youth exactly the wrong message, he said.
"Earlier this year, President Barack Obama said he thought recreational use of marijuana was just a
'bad habit' no more dangerous than consuming alcohol,"
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said on his website.
"He also indicated he thought it was 'important' for the legalization of recreational marijuana under state law in Colorado and Washington to 'go forward.' Attorney General Holder has also recently stated that he's 'cautiously optimistic' about the legalization of recreational marijuana in those states."
"When kids receive the message that marijuana use is acceptable and even welcome, it’s no wonder that the perception of harm from marijuana goes down," Grassley said. "Those of us in the public eye have an obligation to make sure kids understand the dangers of all drug use, including marijuana.
Grassley's cautionary remarks came as the
National Institutes of Health released a study showing a majority of high school seniors don't think occasionally smoking marijuana is harmful — and that only 16.4 percent of high schoolers thought pot puts people at risk, down from 27.4 percent in 2009.
"By offering pro-marijuana messages, the president and his top appointees are working at cross purposes with the federal government experts who are trying to stop drug use among teenagers," said Grassley, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and co-chairman of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
Republicans inserted a rider into the funding bill to prevent the
District of Columbia from using federal or local funds to enact any laws to legalize or reduce penalties for marijuana possession.
The NIH report, which measured drug use and attitudes among the nation's eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders, also found that in states with medical-marijuana laws, 40 percent of 12th-graders who reported using marijuana in the past year said they had consumed marijuana in food products, compared with 26 percent in non-medical-marijuana states.
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