WHY COMMUNITIES SHOULD BAN MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES
By Roger Morgan, Take Back America Campaign
The two most important responsibilities of elected officials at any level are to protect the people and tax dollars. Neither is possible by allowing the cultivation and/or sale of marijuana in a community.
First of all, It is a federally banned Schedule 1 drug because it has no accepted medicinal use, can’t be administered properly under supervision, and has the potential for harm. Real medicines have known compounds, dosage and potency, and must be reproducible in a uniform manner. Smoking has never been approved as a delivery vehicle. Edibles, vaping and dabbing range in potency, compounds and dosage in such a wide range, consistency is impossible, not to mentioned most are laced with pesticides.
Credible scientific research will affirm that marijuana is a dangerous drug. Marijuana is fat-soluble and stays in the body and brain for a month, compounding with each additional use. Even in the 60s and 70s when the potency of the drug ranged from ½ to 2%, the human harms were significant. Today, the potency in smoked form ranges from 20 to 30%. Edibles have a normal range of 50 to 80%, and waxes and oils used in vaping and dabbing go as high as 98%. The harms have escalated proportionally.
Marijuana causes permanent structural changes in developing brains, anyone under age 25. The age groups with the highest consumption are 18-25 and 12-17, both under the threshold. The harms include loss of IQ; problems with memory, cognition and learning; and psychotic breaks leading to horrific acts of violence. Pot users are 7 times more likely to commit suicide, and 5 times more susceptible to schizophrenia, paranoia and bi-polar condition. 17% of those who start using before 18 will become addicted, 9% of those who start after 18. Marijuana is a known cause of cancer, chronic bronchitis, cardiac problems, birth defects. Traffic deaths owing to marijuana impairment have doubled. Roughly 13% of drivers on the road today are impaired to varying degrees, putting everyone at risk.
Over 50% of arrestees for all crimes test positive for pot, 59% in Sacramento. It is a gateway to drugs that kill 144 Americans daily due to overdose, almost all of whom started their drug journey with pot. It is a major cause of high school dropouts. Academically, America is 24th (last) in the world, with a one-third dropout rate. According to UC Santa Barbara, the life time cost of one dropout is $392,000.
Dispensaries are magnets for crime. Their products serve as the root cause of human pain, suffering and death. They are drug dealers with store fronts, and a threat to the health and safety of any community.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ….
ROGER MORGAN Chairman/Founder, Take Back America Campaign, is a 20 year anti-drug activist dealing with drug prevention at the local, state and national level. (www.tbac.us). Formerly Chairman and Executive Director of the Coalition for A Drug-Free California. Owner/CEO of Steelheart International LLC, engaged in international business development and has been an entrepreneur and businessman in California for 37 years. He was Founding Chairman of the Coronado SAFE Foundation in 1997, a non-profit dealing with drug prevention; prior Board Member of the San Diego Prevention Coalition; member of the National Coalition for Student Drug Testing; and Special Advisor to the Golden Rule Society in Coronado.
