Sign Our Statement
of Support Today!
A resolution reaffirming support for state
regulation and taxation of the tobacco market to
reduce its influence on our youth and
communities and a call to apply similar governance
to the unregulated marijuana market.
WHEREAS,
Every family has the right to
live free from policies that foster crime and
unregulated drug sellers in
their communities.
According to a federal government
survey, the number of persons who reported
selling marijuana and other illicit drugs each
year nearly quadrupled across the nation from
1.2 million in 1992 to 4.7 million in 2007 with
one in six sellers being persons under
the age of 18.
The U.S. Department of
Justice reports that more marijuana is being
trafficked by drug cartels along our southern
border with Mexico than all drugs combined, and
according to INTERPOL, these organizations are
using the profits from the unregulated marijuana
market to expand other illicit drug markets.
A World Health Organization
survey conducted in 2008 reported that the
United States of America has the highest rates
of marijuana use in the world.
While the Federal Government and
the State of Texas have been able to control the
price of tobacco through taxation, the price of
marijuana has greatly declined over the past two
decades in every region of Texas, with the price
decreasing by more than half in some major cities; thus,
further increasing the accessibility of
marijuana among youth.
Since the passage of
comprehensive tobacco control laws by the State
of Texas in 1997, the Fiscal Year 2009 Annual Synar
Report showed that the percentage of Texas
retailers that violated laws against tobacco
sales to minors dropped from 56 percent in
fiscal year 1997
to 11.3 percent in 2009.
According to the state-funded
Texas School Survey, the rate of tobacco
cigarette use in the early nineties was twice
that of marijuana use among Texas students in
grades 7-12 and today it has dropped below that
of current marijuana use in
every major city
across Texas, a trend that has been reflected
among school districts nationwide in the federal
government's Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Despite overwhelming sentiment
among the general public against cigarette
smoking and the tobacco market, every major
tobacco prevention group in the United States
has supported broader regulation and taxation as
the best approach to dealing with the public
health issue, rather than calling for a total
ban on the tobacco market.
BE IT RESOLVED THAT
We firmly support the successful efforts of
state and local law enforcement in reducing the
harmful
influence of the tobacco market on our youth and
communities.
We support the current role of the
Federal Government of the United States of
America in guiding state regulation over the
tobacco market while preserving
the prerogative of the states to serve as
laboratories of innovation in reducing cigarette
initiation and use among youth.
We call on the Federal Government and the State of Texas to apply similar
governance towards reducing the harmful
influence of the unregulated marijuana market on
our youth and communities.
Please sign our Statement of
Support
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