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Underage Drinking Prevention News

Marijuana Prevention

The North Coastal Prevention Coalition (NCPC) mission and philosophy are committed to promoting healthy communities and positive opportunities for young people, and fostering community leadership in substance abuse prevention:  The mission of the North Coastal Prevention Coalition is to reduce the harm of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs   in the cities of Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista through community action, education, support and collaboration.  

NCPC members felt strongly about naming marijuana specifically in their mission statement, because past 30-day use of marijuana had surpassed cigarette use by young people, according to local school surveys.  This trend began in 1999 for 9th and 11th graders and in 2007 for 7th graders.

Developing community-level environmental prevention strategies to address marijuana was a relatively new concept.  NCPC’s first success came in 2002, working with the City of Oceanside to adopt an ordinance restricting the location of smoke-shops, which commonly sold drug paraphernalia under the guise of it being for tobacco use.  In 2004, NCPC joined together with prevention colleagues throughout San Diego County to develop a county-wide initiative to counter pro-marijuana influences.  This initiative, called HARM (Health Advocates Rejecting Marijuana), is comprised of various community sectors throughout San Diego County to help coordinate, support, develop, and implement marijuana prevention efforts in regions and communities throughout the County.  NCPC has successfully implemented multiple prevention campaigns at the local level to counter pro-marijuana influences.  

These campaigns have resulted in the adoption of private and public policies to restrict the sale of drug paraphernalia and pro-drug merchandise, ordinances to prevent the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries, and continued growth of an annual event "420 Remix" to counter the ‘unofficial marijuana holiday’ of April 20. 

NCPC utilizes the California Healthy Kids Survey to track changes over time in youth substance use.  Long-term data from local school surveys indicated slight but steady declines in reported past 30-day use of marijuana from 2003 to 2007.  The chart below illustrates data from Oceanside Unified School District because they had the most consistent and valid response rates to the survey.  Carlsbad and Vista Unified also had declines in many areas, but some years their response rate was not considered a valid sample size of the student population. Unfortunately, the most recent student survey data from 2009 indicate rates are going up, which mirrors trends across California and the United States.  Changes in the Perception of Harm/Risk of smoking marijuana once or twice a week have been mixed.  The 2009 CHKS data for the Tri-City region shows that perception of harm/risk has decreased among 7th and 9th graders from 87% in 2007 to 72% in 2009 and 74% in 2007 to 68% in 2009, respectively.  However, perception of harm/risk has slightly increased among 11th graders, from 67% in 2007 to 69% in 2009.  

The perceived difficulty of obtaining marijuana has fluctuated over the last several years.  In general, there was an increase in perceived difficulty from 2005 to 2007. However, the 2009 CHKS data indicates that obtaining marijuana has become easier, with less than 10% of 11th graders reporting marijuana to be fairly or very difficult to obtain.
 
The pro-marijuana movement continues to gain momentum, with more states permitting marijuana for ‘medicinal’ use, and California placing a proposition on November’s ballot to permit recreational use of marijuana by adults.  While NCPC efforts to counter pro-marijuana influences at the local level have achieved some success, it is clear that much more needs to be done at the local, state, and national level to stem the rising tide of marijuana use by youth.