The dark side of legalization of recreational marijuana
Twenty-four states have already legalized recreational marijuana (pot) and four states, Florida, Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota, have ballot initiatives in the 2024 election to do the same. Big money is being spent to push these ballot initiatives because even more big money will be made. Whatever you have heard about the benefits of legal recreational pot, there is a destructive dark underside being covered up.
The following consequences will occur when recreational pot is legalized:
1. Increased highway accidents causing death and injury by drivers high on pot.[1]
2. Increased ER visits from drug overdoses in children, students and adults.[2]
3. Increases in serious crime as more drug lords move in to undercut the expensive legal product.[3]
4. Brain damage to developing minds.[4]
5. Farmland gobbled up to grow pot instead of food crops.
6. Increased tax revenue will mainly grow new government programs dealing with addiction, health and safety. [5]
7. Black market sales of more dangerous drugs will increase because of the gateway nature of Marijuana. [6]
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To be clear, most states have legalized "medical" marijuana for the sick. This editorial is about recreational marijuana. "Recreational" marijuana’s sole purpose is to get high not to treat a medical condition. Also, please do not compare recreational marijuana use with alcohol. People do not necessarily drink to get drunk, whereas recreational pot users’ main goal is to get high.
My husband and I experienced what legalizing pot did in Colorado and subsequently moved to Florida. Legalization was supposed to decrease crime, but 'serious' drug crime actually increased.[7] Of course, if you want to count arrests for possessing a bag of pot as a crime, then that type of crime was eliminated as it was no longer considered a crime. However, dangerous drug crimes increased as more drug lords/cartels moved into Colorado to undercut the legalized marijuana sellers. Those who grew it legally had to follow a multitude of rules and were taxed, whereas the drug lords were not regulated or taxed and could sell it cheaper in Colorado and in other states.
Injuries and deaths from automobile accidents caused by drivers driving high on pot also increased. Recently, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute released studies reporting that crash rate injuries and fatal crashes spiked after legalizing recreational marijuana in California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
"Driving simulator tests have shown that drivers who are high on marijuana react more slowly, find it harder to pay attention, have more difficulty maintaining their car’s position in the lane, and make more errors when something goes wrong than they do when they’re sober."[8]
In Colorado, complaints rose of employees coming to work high. One college kid overdosed after he ate a whole marijuana chocolate chip cookie and jumped to his death from a roof. He was supposed to only eat one sixth of the cookie. Who can just eat 1/6th of a chocolate chip cookie?[9] Nurses and doctors reported more children in the ER because they got into their parents' now-legal stash of edible marijuana treats of candies, brownies and cookies.[10] People living in apartments started complaining about the pot smoke infiltrating their homes and the whole building. We saw more homeless drug addicts living along the beautiful bike paths and underpasses. Other illegal drug usage increased after pot was legalized. We could not bike anymore on the paths which were now littered with used needles and passed out users. A once beautiful city became a haven for drug users.
Chinese-funded and staffed marijuana farms have sprung up across the US. Investigations by nonprofit news outlet Pro Publica have found links between Chinese diplomats, Chinese Communist party-affiliated organizations, local Chinese criminal syndicates, and some marijuana operations in the United States. [11]
One of the top priorities among cannabis researchers is clarifying how marijuana affects the developing brain. “I’m concerned by the increase in the number of people who are using cannabis at higher doses on a daily basis,” said Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Adolescents are more vulnerable to addiction, and once they are using compulsively, cannabis can interfere with memory and learning.” In one study, 15% of people of all ages who used cannabis in the past 30 days met the DSMMD criteria for cannabis use disorder, and rates of this mental disorder among youth ages 12 to 20 were significantly higher at 23%.
Cannabis users performed more poorly on cognitive tests, especially in attention and memory tasks, and teenagers who started using earlier in life performed more poorly than those who started using later or nonusers. (Neuropsychology, Vol. 29, No. 6, 2015).[12]
The globalist elite who desire societal control throughout the world applauds the legalization of pot because a society in a drug-induced stupor is easier to manipulate.
One of the main arguments for legalizing recreational marijuana is that the state will reap millions in tax dollars from the new tax on growers and sellers. They claim that this money will benefit the state. Will it? Here are three examples of where the new millions were being spent in three states that legalized recreational pot:
California:
• first the revenue covers regulatory and research costs, then
• 60% goes to anti-drug programs targeting kids
• 20% to environmental programs
• 20% to public safety
Alaska:
• 25% to general fund
• 50% to the Department of Public Safety, Health and Social Services, and Department of Corrections.
• 25% to Marijuana education fund.
Connecticut:
• 15% general fund
• 60% to social equity programs
• 25% to substance misuse treatment programs. [13]
So, most of the pot tax goes to regulating the consequences of legalizing pot. It does not benefit the general citizens of the state.
If you want to see homeless drug addicts flock to your state, then vote for legalizing recreational marijuana.
If you want to see farmland gobbled up by drug lords and have them as your neighbors, then vote for legalizing recreational marijuana.
If you want to see even more crazy drivers and deadly accidents on the roads, then vote for legalizing recreational marijuana.
If you want to see more youth become addicts, have mental impairment and standardized test scores go even lower, then vote for legalizing recreational marijuana.
My conclusion is that the negative results of the legalization of recreational marijuana far outweigh and even contradict what is being promoted as positive outcomes of passing the ballot initiative.
1. https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/crash-rates-jump-in-wake-of-marijuana-legalization-new-studies-show
2. https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2023/01/05/colorado-kids-marijuana-edibles
3. https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/marijuana/mexican-drug-cartels-are-taking-full-advantage-ofcolorados-marijuana-lawshttps://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/drug-traffickers-seek-safe-haven-amid-legal-marijuana/
4. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/06/marijuana-effects-brain
5. https://www.fool.com/research/marijuana-tax-revenue-by-state/
6. Illegal or Legal, Marijuana Remains a Gateway Drug - PMC (nih.gov)
7. https://modernfarmer.com/2021/06/illegal-marijuana-sales-still-big-even-in-states-where-pot-is-legal/
8. https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/crash-rates-jump-in-wake-of-marijuana-legalization-new-studies-show
9. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marijuana-cookie-death-colorado-warning-labels-cdc/
10 https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2023/01/05/colorado-kids-marijuana-edibles
11. https://www.npr.org/2024/06/24/1238497863/chinese-marijuana-farms-new-mexico
12. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/06/marijuana-effects-brain
13. https://www.fool.com/research/marijuana-tax-revenue-by-state/
14. https://www.politicalwatchdog.com/psych_fraud/johnson.htm
Patricia Johnson is a former Colorado State Board of Education Member (1995-2001). During her tenure, she promoted strong academic curricula and fought to protect parental rights. After working many years attempting to fix the public schools she now encourages parents to homeschool. She has been married to Brad for 49 years.
You can reach her at [email protected].
