A substance abuse prevention group is hosting a forum this evening in downtown Vancouver on how to discourage kids from getting into marijuana. I know what you’re thinking: What? I didn’t come to Cannabis Chronicles to read about staying away from pot.

True, and fair enough. Everyone and their grandmother knows where to find marijuana. I mean, it is legal now. There are stores and dispensaries, and then of course black market dealers haven’t exactly gone away yet. The stuff’s everywhere.

According to a 2014 Healthy Youth Survey, nearly half of Clark County’s high school seniors have tried it at some point. Still though, Initiative 502 was written to keep marijuana out of kids’ hands, and even the most ardent advocates of the new industry are working hard to do that at the retail end.

Local growers, store owners and others in the business really want to see the grand experiment of legal recreational cannabis work out and flourish into something on the same level as the growing microbrew industry. To their credit, they’re taking the rules very seriously. After all, one of the fastest ways to let it all fail is selling to minors.

Four stores — two in Tacoma and two in Everett — failed compliance checks in a Liquor Control Board sting operation this month. Given the high security at each of Clark County’s pot shops, it’s hard for me to see how any store could sell to a minor, but strange things happen.

Anyway, tonight’s forum is hosted by the PREVENT! Coalition, and it starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Community Library. For an idea of what to expect, Marissa Harshman wrote a preview earlier this week.