Teenage straight talk about Proposition 19

Much of the debate over Proposition 19 focuses on kids’ access to marijuana. Supporters say that legalizing weed would get it off the street. Opponents say legalization would make it too accessible to minors.

Classes at Ontario High School start an hour later on Friday mornings than during the rest of the week. On this day, five students agreed to speak with complete honesty about drugs. We changed their names to protect their identities. They say a lot of students use that extra time on Fridays to get high in a park near campus before and after school.

"We get high in a safe environment, like someone’s house or backyard," says Larry.

"Just pretty much anywhere we won’t get caught," says Tim.

"Yeah," says Larry, "like one of our backyards when our parents aren’t home."

The group includes five boys and one girl, all 16 years old. Three are enrolled in college-prep classes. They describe themselves as A and B students with maybe an occasional C … who enjoy getting high sometimes.

"Sometimes we’ll smoke weed once or twice a week, mainly on the weekends when we get the chance," says Tim. "People play video games, people go on the computer, it’s another thing to do while you’re not in school. It’s not really like a big deal…”

They say they don’t take their stashes to school, because last year the district started to conduct random searches with drug-sniffing dogs. The students say pot’s still pretty easy to get on or around campus – no ID, no hassle. Most of them say they started smoking in middle school.

"A friend used to sell," says Larry, "so he just sold me some. He was a little older. I paid for it with my allowance money."

“Ask any young adult under the age of 21 and they will tell you like they tell me. It’s easier for them to get marijuana today than it is for them to get alcohol," said Judge Jim Gray.

The retired Orange County judge says he’s seen it time and time again in his courtroom during the last 25 years. He joined law enforcement officials at a recent Yes on Prop 19 event at a West Hollywood park. Gray says powerful gangs get young kids to move marijuana on the streets and once that starts…

“…they also get hooked into selling other drugs," says Gray, "because the people who are supplying the marijuana to them are also supplying methamphetamines and other drugs. We couldn’t do it worse if we tried.”

Gray says that’s why he supports regulating weed the way state and federal governments regulate booze. He says requiring ID and selling it to adults would accomplish three goals: make pot harder for kids to get, drive gangs out of business, and fatten California’s tax base.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is on the other side of the Prop 19 debate.

“There’s no such thing as predicable positives in passage of Prop 19,” says Baca.

He says his department seizes tons of drugs, including marijuana. He argues that Prop 19 would harm children by reducing law enforcement’s capacity to round up and dispose of the drug.

“We’ll have more people affected by what they can’t do in school, because the young people will start using this more," says Baca.

“It’s just a bunch of rhetoric, I think," says Chris "in general just trying to sway people in one direction or the next.”

Chris turned 19 last summer and considers himself an occasional pot smoker. He’s studying guitar at Glendale Community College. Chris says getting high helps him loosen up and write groovier songs.

Like the teenagers from Ontario High, Chris says he started getting high in middle school; he’s seen a lot of his friends become drug addicts.

“It’s not a good thing," says Chris. "It’s actually one of my worries about Prop 19 being passed, people using it more and more.”

But if those teenagers in the Ontario park could vote, they’d say “yes” - even if they’re not old enough to legally reap the benefits.

“Whether or not they legalize it, me and plenty of other people are still gonna smoke it," says Tim. " If they do, it’s just gonna be easier for adults to get it. For us…it’s still gonna be the same.”