Marijuana Legalization: Colorado is Counting the Costs

Like most of my readers, I have never experienced marijuana. So, when the subject comes up in debates about public policy, we don’t feel qualified to weigh in and instinctively defer to others. This results in a skewed public discussion. While more than half of Americans have never used marijuana, and the overwhelming majority do not currently use it, much of the policy discussion is driven by those who do.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that the only people who talk about marijuana are pot-heads. I’m only saying that the voices participating in public debates about legalization are probably not representing a cross section of the general public. Let’s address this imbalance by educating ourselves enough to participate in the debate that is not going to go away any time soon.

Marijuana refers to two species of the cannabis plant (sativa and indica) which contain a cocktail of more than 100 cannabinoids. For hundreds of years its leaves, stems, seeds and flowers have been dried and ingested in various ways to induce a euphoric feeling. The main cannabinoid that causes this “high” is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

One important fact to know is that the concentration of THC can vary widely from plant to plant. Unlike alcoholic beverages, which always specify their concentration on the label, the THC in cannabis is more of a crap shoot. In recent years, growers have made strains of the plant that are significantly more concentrated than they were decades ago.

Medical marijuana refers to using the whole, unprocessed plant to self-medicate for various conditions such as pain and nausea. Because it is impossible to determine consistent dosages from whole plants, and because the additional cannabinoids in the plant have not been tested for safety, the FDA has not approved its use for medical purposes. Medical marijuana should not be confused with medicine which is made from the cannabis plant.

There are three such medicines that have undergone clinical trials and are approved by the FDA. Two of them, dronabinol and nabilone, contain THC and are approved drugs that are often prescribed for AIDS patients and people undergoing chemotherapy. The third, Epidiolex,® is a cannabidiol (CBD oil) extract that is prescribed for certain forms of epilepsy. CBD oil is also available over the counter and sometimes recommended by doctors. Additionally, nabiximols is a drug combining CBD and THC which is sold in Europe but is not approved by the FDA.

The push for medical marijuana is not about making the medicinal use of THC and CBD available to suffering people. It is already available. Medical marijuana legislation is about bypassing quality control, dosing, labelling and clinical trials. While this makes access to THC cheaper for the patient, it also makes it more dangerous and more easily obtainable for non-medical use.

In fact, legalization of “medical marijuana” has a habit of becoming the gateway to “recreational marijuana.” That’s the pattern we saw played out on our southern border. In 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use, they had already been leaders in medical marijuana.

Six years have passed since Colorado’s ballot initiative that commercialized pot. That’s enough time to see how it’s working out and it’s not pretty. Bob Troyer, U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, recently published a guest commentary in the Denver Post. It should be required reading for anyone who thinks legalization is a good idea.

For starters, marijuana use among Colorado’s youth is 85 percent higher than the national average. This is a troubling statistic because the neurobiology of the developing brain makes youth far more susceptible than adults to addiction. As the marijuana industry seeks to make more money, creating a large pool of heavy users is most easily accomplished in the youth market.

On the road we are seeing that marijuana-related traffic fatalities are up by 151 percent. Remember, that number doesn’t just mean that marijuana users are dying on the road. It also means that non-users are being killed in greater numbers.

One of the arguments for legalization claimed that alcohol and opioid use would decline. This proved not to be true. Colorado’s alcohol consumption has risen steadily since pot legalization. Also, studies now show that heavy users of marijuana are more likely to abuse opioids.

Another argument is that, since people are going to use it anyway, we might as well make it legal and tax it. In the bargain, we will get rid of the black market and make the world a safer place. This argument plays well among libertarians and fiscal conservatives. But now all three elements of its narrative have been disproved.

First, legalization did not merely harness the market of people who were already using. Rather, it is creating more users every day. The very act of legalization sends a public message that marijuana is a harmless drug. On top of that false message, the pot industry is aggressively expanding the market for its product. Do we really think that seductive ads targeting our kids are harmless?

Second, the promise of increased state revenue has not panned out. Pot taxes have increased Colorado’s revenue by less than one percent. But even this gain is wiped out by the regulatory costs coupled with public health and safety losses.

Third, the black market has not gone away. It has exploded. Colorado has become an exporter of marijuana. Last year alone 6.4 metric tons of the stuff was grown in Colorado but was not sold there. Federal lands became the home of more than 80,000 black market plants. Organizations from Cuba, China, Mexico and elsewhere now operate sophisticated money laundering and drug-trafficking operations within the state.

Troyer lays out all these devastating statistics and more in his informative column. But he does not deal with the family cost. I have read a good number of articles both for and against legalization. Some are written from a medical perspective, some from a legal perspective, some by libertarians and some by liberals.

However, no one ever talks about the simple fact that the more widely mind-altering drugs are available, the more difficult it is for families to keep their children free of their corrosive effects.

Somewhere along the way we forgot that freedom is for families. The family is the basic building block of society. Strong families give us healthy societies. Broken families give us unhealthy societies. Our lawmakers need to remember this when making policy.

The modern impulse to deregulate absolutely everything from porn to pot has cost the family dearly. It pits the radical freedom of the individual against the healthy freedom of the family. As a result, both families and individuals are harmed. It’s high time we remember that individual freedoms can only be preserved when families are supported. This should be a simple litmus test.

When legislators are considering anything and everything, the most important thing to do is to stand in the shoes of mothers and fathers. Don’t ask merely about the revenue possibilities. Don’t just ask about the cost of enforcement. Don’t ask about whether you want the personal freedom to do this or that.

Rather ask this: would this law help me raise my children or, would it make my job more difficult? That’s the one question that was overlooked in Colorado. Now, the whole state is paying for it.

Read More:
Jeff Hunt, USA Today: Marijuana devastated Colorado, Don't legalize it nationally.
Luke Niforatos, Legalizing pot has been a failed experiment